Accused
by FMGRE
Summary: Bella gets in trouble and the Cullens return to help her.  It's five years after New Moon and Edward never returned.  A humorous drama, with legal suspense, action, and the occasional laughable circumstance.
1. Bella's real life nightmare

I own nothing. Nada. Zilch. It belongs to Stephanie Meyer

Chapter 1

His blue eyes glared murderously at me from across the room. He ever so slowly advanced towards me, the bruise from where I had slapped him darkening on his cheek. I knew without a doubt that if I didn't do something, he would kill me where I stood. He was a different kind of monster from the one I had encountered years earlier in Phoenix, but no less deadly.

This time though, no one was on the way to save me. I had to save myself. I bumped into something as I backed into the corner. Reaching behind me, I felt our bedside dresser. I then knew what I had to do. I wrenched the drawer open and pulled out the gun he kept there. I leveled it at his head and pulled the trigger.

As he fell, I reached for the phone behind me. A voice trilled on the other end.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"This is Bella Brandon, 641 Meadow Street. My husband tried to kill me and I shot him. Please send an ambulance quickly." Looking at my husbands crumpled form; I knew an ambulance was completely unnecessary. I should have asked for a coroner.

Chapter 2

It had been a week since I had shot Henry in self defense. If I had been anywhere else in the country or if my husband had been anyone else it would have been an open and shut case of self defense. I had tons of physical evidence that supported my case; bruises, broken bones, even a neighbor's account of what she had heard on that night. Unfortunately, my husband had been an extremely well liked lawyer who had more people in his pocket than I could count. Several policemen had let on that they were very unhappy with me for shutting off their extra flow of income.

To make matters even worse my father in law, Henry Senior was a congressman. A very influential congressman who was very unhappy at Henry Junior's current residence (Morgan County Cemetery). My picture had been plastered all over the national news for the last week. I was being portrayed as a gold digger, who had shot her husband in order to become the sole inheritant of his rather large estate. I sighed unhappily and pushed a piece of chocolate brown hair behind my ear. I had been in jail for over a week and hadn't even talked to a lawyer yet. Not that the justice system hadn't tried. No one wanted to represent me. I couldn't really blame them. If I was a lawyer, I wouldn't want to be on Congressmen Henry Brandon's bad side either.

I sighed again. I didn't really care. I was an empty shell, unhappy and broken. I had been for over five years now. At twenty three I was bitter, desperately unhappy, and generally didn't care about whether I lived or died. The only reason I married Henry was because he was so damn persistent. I resisted all through college, but after I graduated my will to fight him had ebbed. Basically, I had nothing better to do, so I married him. It didn't matter. I would never love anyone after Edward.

I winced. I had done such a good job blocking my high school memories that I was able to go days at a time without thinking about him. But after a week of sitting alone in my cell with nothing to do but think, it was hard to stay away from what had easily been the best memories of my life. They were also the most painful. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I thought of briefly of what might have been, if he had loved me. If he had stayed with me. I certainly wouldn't be here.

"Excuse me?" a voice sounded. I gasped and turned around in shock. A face I hadn't seen for five years stared out from outside of the cell. He reached a hand through the bars. "I'm Jasper Hale, I'll be representing your case."


	2. Edward's real life nightmare

Chapter 3

Edward's Point of View

Five Days Prior

I was lying listlessly on my couch staring at the ceiling. It was really all I felt like doing nowadays. Alice had convinced me to come back to live with the family three years ago. No, convince wasn't the right word. She had conscripted Emmett and Jasper to forcibly remove me from my rat infested attic. I had been wallowing in my own misery for so long I didn't have the strength to fight back.

I agreed to stay, only because I saw what I had done to my family. They never smiled, joked, or even laughed. Emmett didn't do much except watch TV anymore. Carlisle worked obsessively, Esme never stopped cleaning. Jasper spent as much time away from the family as possible hiding from their emotions. Rosalie threw constant tantrums, and Alice rarely shopped. My idiocy had sucked the life from my family, who had loved and cared for me for eighty years. Ironic. In my self imposed exile I had managed to become the thing I feared the most; a monster.

If I had thought there was a chance, any at all that Bella would take me back, that I could make her happy, I would have taken it. I looked her up about a month after Alice had forced me to return. What I found both broke my heart and warmed it as well. She had moved on with her life. She had been granted a full ride scholarship to a fairly good university. I found her on the Dean's list every semester. I even went as far as probing the mind of Charlie to glean any information at all about her. She was an English literature major. She had the affections of many boys at college, and Charlie had taken a real liking to one named Henry. He was quite a bit older than Bella, but Charlie was still very impressed by him. Very stable, and he always treated Bella with respect.

Everything I learned from Charlie confirmed my belief that she had in fact, moved on and gained the normal life she deserved. My heart broke for my loss, but was overjoyed that at least she was happy. I went back to my family and have stayed ever since. I no longer like music, it reminds me too much of Bella. I constantly thought of the love and acceptance I had found with her, and just as often thought of how I had thrown it so carelessly away. I liked to lie alone in my room. It didn't hurt as much as everything else did.

"Edward!" _Bella, this can't be true_ Alice's thoughts added. My head shot up at the thought of Bella. In an instant I was next to Alice, as she stared horror stricken at the news program Emmett had been watching. A snapshot of Bella stared out from the screen. Her brown eyes were grief stricken, and her beautiful hair hung messily around her face. She looked almost the same as she had the day I had left her except for one thing. A large bruise covered the left side of her face. This picture was a mug shot. I focused my attention on what the reporter was saying on the screen.

"...from a 911 call on Friday night. The district attorney has declined comment on the case saying it is an ongoing investigation." I turned to Alice.

"Why didn't you see this?" I demanded.

"You told me not to look at her future Edward. I was doing what you asked." I knew that was true, but I never though something like this would happen to my angel. She was supposed to have a happy life, get married, have children, and grow old. Not be put on trial for murder.

Alice and I sat down to gain as much information from the report as possible. The rest of the family had joined us, and we all watched the screen in shocked silence. From the little information that we were able to glean from the report, Bella had called 911 saying she had shot her husband in self defense. The police were having trouble believing that because they had been married for such a short time, and there was a large inheritance involved. Bella stood to gain several million dollars upon his death from insurance policies alone. On top of it all they had an interview with Congressman Brandon professing his relief that his son's killer was behind bars.

Rage I was unaware of building suddenly exploded. I charged at the tv and threw it through the wall. I couldn't think; couldn't see my family. I lunged at the nearest moving object wanting to kill the sorry son of a bitch who would call my beautiful Bella a killer. As I slowly regained my senses I realized Emmett and Jasper were sitting on me, keeping me from causing any more damage. I looked around. The living room was destroyed; my feet had put huge dents in the wood flooring. A wall had been knocked down by the television. The furniture was in shambles. Ashamed I relaxed and Emmett and Jasper let me go. My family's thoughts flooded me as I settled down by what was left of the couch.

_That's the most emotion I've seen from Edward in five years _thought Carlisle.

_Let's go break her out! _That was Emmett.

_Something isn't right about this_ thought Jasper. I looked back as Jasper. Of course something wasn't right about this, my Bella was in jail. Someone had hurt her, and it was my fault. Sensing my rising emotions Jasper sent a wave of calm towards me. I sat back.

"What are we going to do about this?" Alice asked. Everyone glanced from her to me expecting another outburst.

"Emmett's right," I said, "We have to go break her out." Alice looked at me sternly.

"You want to break into a prison and steal Bella?" she asked skeptically. "Have you even thought this through? What if Bella doesn't want to be stolen? What if she wants to have a semi-normal life and get acquitted like everyone else? It sounds like she killed this guy is self defense, she shouldn't have that much trouble getting off."

Of course, Alice was right. It wasn't fair of me to charge back into her life. After all she'd been through the last thing she needed was her crazy vampire ex-boyfriend charging back into her life and forcing her break out of prison. I had read in Charlie's thoughts of the catatonic state she had been in for months after I left. The screaming at night in her dreams for me not to leave her. I was a miserable creature. I had tried to do what was best for her, and every time I did, I messed it up more. That is why I had originally made the decision not to track her down at college. I had already done enough damage to her. I loved her enough to stay away if it meant she was happy. I didn't care if I had to wallow in my own misery for the rest of my dismal existence as long as she had the life she deserved.

"Could you please look into her future Alice?" If she would be fine on her own I would continue to leave her at peace. But if she needed me, nothing could keep me away. Alice nodded and closed her eyes. The scene she saw was awful. Bella, in the court room being represented by someone who looked barely older than I did. Bella, being found guilty of first degree murder. Bella...I stopped watching. Tearless sobs escaped me. I couldn't...wouldn't allow this to happen. I was going to stop it.

Alice met my eyes. "Let's pack our bags."

Chapter 4

In the end, everyone insisted on coming. Emmett's thoughts centered mainly on a real live prison break, (he'd been watching way too much tv lately). Carlisle's were purely worry for Bella's well being. Esme wanted to go see her and comfort her. She had experience with abusive husbands in her former life. Even Rose's thoughts were benevolent. Sort of. They were benevolent for Rosalie anyway. _I hope they don't make her wear that horrible orange color_. Everyone else's thoughts varied from worry, excitement, and even hope that Bella would join our family after all of this. Not that we'd have much of a choice if we were forced to use Emmett's plan. That was plan B though. Plan A was get Bella a really great defense and get the trial over with quickly.

From what we understood from the news reports, no one had been appointed to defend Bella yet. Jasper thought this was extremely odd. One of his multiple scholastic endeavors had been Harvard Law several years back. Before that, he had studied political science at Yale. As such, he knew a lot more about law than any of the rest of us. A freeze had been put on all of her accounts, so she couldn't hire her own lawyer. One should have been appointed to her though, and something about one not have been really was really bugging Jasper. When I pressed him about it he just said there was something off about the whole situation. He couldn't exactly put his finger one why though. I knew, because I had been obsessively monitoring his thoughts for the past twelve hour car ride.

I loved Bella, so much. I had been a fool to leave her. When I left I envisioned her going to college, becoming successful, and having a family. Never in my wildest dreams had I considered that my leaving would result in an unhappy human existence for her. Every time I pictured her, I thought of all the great experiences she deserved to have. I thought she wouldn't be able to live a full life with me, that she would regret not ever having the chance to have children, or grow old with her husband.

What if she didn't want to see me now? What if I had scarred her beyond recognition? I knew that I would do anything to see her happy again, and I would do everything in my power if she would only take me back. I knew I was a miserable excuse for a man but I was beyond caring. I would beg and plead. Even if she never wanted to speak with me again I would accept her decision, but stay to protect her. I was afraid though. Afraid of what kind of a Bella I would find sitting alone in that prison.

"Edward?" I looked at Jasper. He looked nervous but determined. _What if I represent her? _He thought._ I have tons more experience than any lawyer than we can buy. Plus it will get us in to see her more often. Then I can finally make up for losing control at her birthday party all those years ago...if it wasn't for me this wouldn't have happened._

His thoughts struck a painful chord; I had been contemplating how the entire situation was my fault only hours earlier. If I hadn't been such and idiot...if I hadn't left her...the possibilities were endless. This might at least give Jasper the peace I would never have. After all, it didn't really matter who represented her, just how much money it took to buy the jury members.

"That is a great idea Jazz, I'm sure she'd love it," I smiled at him, the first real smile I'd cracked in a very long time. Alice's eye's glazed over and then she squeaked and clapped her little hands together.

"This _is_ a great idea!" she bubbled.

"What's a great idea?" Emmett asked, thoroughly confused.


	3. Bella's story

Chapter 5

"Are you shitting me?" I exclaimed. Jasper's mouth fell open in shock. I was pretty shocked myself; I usually had better control over my vocabulary. What did I expect though? My life had gone from modified-zombie state to celebrity criminal overnight. I had no money, no friends, and no husband. Thank god to the last one. I realized the guard was eying me very curiously. I needed to avert suspicion. I gathered my scattered thoughts and decided the least suspicious thing I could do was introduce myself.

"It's a pleasure Mr. Hale. To whom do I owe the pleasure of your services?" I knew damn well who had sent him, but the formality was necessary. I doubted he would make a very effective lawyer if the cover of every tabloid in the country screamed, 'former boyfriend provides defense council for Isabella Brandon'.

"Um, an interested third party Mrs. Brandon. Would you care to discuss your case and possible defense in further detail?" Jasper winked at me.

"Of course Mr. Hale, I've been waiting for a defense council for quite some time." With that, Jasper stepped to the side and allowed to guard to unlock my cell. I was then handcuffed and escorted to the small room at the end of the hall that was regularly used for confidential attorney/client meetings. As soon as the door clicked shut I turned towards Jasper.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed under my breath. Jasper looked momentarily startled but then smiled disarmingly. Of course, he knew exactly what I was feeling. From my confusion to my relief and excitement at seeing him, to my downright weariness, he could feel them all. I couldn't even put up an angry facade.

Jasper smiled broadly at me. "I'm here to get you acquitted of course. Why else would I come?"

"I've no idea," I shot back, "I'm not the one who disappeared for five years only to resurface right before I go through the second most traumatic event of my life." I didn't really want to lash out at Jasper. In fact, I wanted nothing more than to throw my arms around him and demand for him and his family to stay forever. That probably wouldn't go over well with the guards though. Then Jasper did the last thing I expected him to do. He zipped to my side at vampire speed and pulled me into a bear hug that rivaled Emmett's.

"We've all missed you, so much," he murmured. "The family hasn't been the same, and Edward...I can't stand to be around him for longer than a few seconds before his misery drowns me. We all love you, and wish we'd never left." He broke the hug and seemed almost embarrassed. After the last time I'd seen him...at my eighteenth birthday party...a hug was the last thing I'd expected. Plus it was the closest he'd ever gotten to me, not to mention the only physically demonstrative display of affection I'd ever received from him. He smiled brightly. "So I suppose we should discuss how to get you out of here before I go getting ahead of myself. Why don't we sit down and you can tell me what happened."

The swift interaction left my head spinning. His small gesture and sincere words left me stunned and...something else. Hopeful? I hadn't felt hopeful in over five years. I wanted so much to be angry at him and his family, but all I felt was love for them. Even for Edward. _Especially for Edward_ a voice in the back of my mind whispered. Why was Edward miserable? He couldn't possibly be feeling the same way I was, could he? I felt pathetic. Everything in me told me I should be angry and resentful toward them, they had left me after all. But even as I stood there contemplating, all of my resolve to protect myself from being hurt again crumbled. I had the Cullens, at least for now. And I was damn happy for it.

Silently I sat down, pondering where to start. Jasper helped me out. "Tell me everything from the last five years Bella."

I took a deep breath and launched into my story. "After you guys left...I was not well. I was catatonic for a while and a walking zombie for even longer." I told him about hearing Edward's voice when I did dangerous things. I told him about how Jacob was there for me, and how I attempted to date him for a while. I had loved him, but he was too good of a person, and deserved someone who could love him more fully than I ever could. After all, I had no heart to give.

"And so I ended up at a fairly nice university with a full ride scholarship. I must have filled out the application before, well before my birthday. I went there and did exactly what was expected of me. My sophomore year I had to pick a major, so I picked English Literature at random. I was good at it and I enjoyed it in high school before Edward left me. I thought maybe I might find something in life I enjoyed again. It didn't help. I stuck with it though because I had to have a major. One major was as good as another I figured, so I did what I was best at and played the game. I got great grades and my teachers loved me." I paused and looked up from the handcuffs around my wrists to Jasper's encouraging smile. I returned it weakly and continued.

"Occasionally I went to parties because that what my roommates expected of me. I drank because it was expected, and I socialized because it was expected. That's where I met Henry. I don't know why he was at a college party; well actually I have a pretty good guess why he was there. Anyway, he took a liking to me and took it upon himself to 'win' me. I had no interest in him or any other guy, but somehow he always managed to be at the same parties as me, and spending time with the same people. He had been a lawyer for two years at that point, so I don't know how he managed it. At one point he even wrangled an invitation from me to accompany me to Charlie's house one weekend. Charlie loved him, and was so thrilled I was moving on I couldn't bear to tell him otherwise. The end of my junior year, Henry told me he loved me. He said he would always take care of me and that he wanted to marry me. I refused of course, but he was persistent. Finally, about a year ago I agreed. I had one more semester of college and I realized that once I was out of college I had nowhere to go. I had no career plans, no interests, and no source of income. I basically said yes because I was tired of fighting him on it. I had nothing else better to do. He planned the entire wedding down to every last detail. In the end, he even picked my bridesmaids since I had no real friends to speak of." I couldn't bear to look at Jasper's face, to see the realization in his eyes that I truly was a weak and pathetic creature.

"I am so sorry," his voice was soft and sad. There was no revulsion or disgust in his eyes. Instead, only understanding and encouragement. I knew he was feeling my pain right now, and I didn't have the energy to push it away so I could finish. I suddenly felt at peace and I smiled. Having Jasper around was defiantly going to be a nice thing. "We never should have left; I guess we've all kind of paid for it. Edward still loves you, you know?"

I looked up at him in shock. He couldn't be serious. For a while now I had harbored a secret fantasy that Edward did love me and would return to me someday. I had never actually believed it could be true though. How could he love me, especially after this? I had gotten married and killed my husband for goodness sakes. If he still loved me shouldn't he have come to find me before all this? No, he couldn't still love me; if he did he wouldn't have left in the first place. Probably, he had spent enough time away from me my novelty was fresh again. He and his family may be here now, but they were going to leave again, of that I was certain.

"Don't doubt me Bella, I know these things." He tapped his temple. I looked at him skeptically, how on earth could he possible understand? He grinned wider and said, "Don't believe me? I'm empathic remember?" Oh yeah, forgot about that. Stupid know it all vampire.

"I don't think I can talk about this right now Jasper. I want to...but I'm going to loose it pretty soon and I don't think I can handle it right now when I do." He nodded understandingly.

"That's okay Bella. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want. Why don't you tell me about how you ended up shooting Henry?"

Right. I forgot I was spilling my guts to Jasper. I was angry about what happened, and extremely pissed off that I hadn't been able to stop it sooner.

"Well, we had been married for about two months, and we had gotten back from our honeymoon only..." I scrunched up my face as I thought about it, "three weeks ago I guess. The first week was alright, he worked and came home. Last Thursday though, he came home drunk. I mean, really drunk. I couldn't figure out how he had gotten home, but then I looked in our driveway and saw his car. He obviously had driven it home from the bar. I was furious; I couldn't understand how he could be so stupid as to drive when he'd been drinking at all, much less when he was as drunk as he was. He could have killed someone!" I was so angry at the memory I was breathing deeply and clenching my fists. Jasper calmed me down again and smiled. I couldn't imagine how hard it was for him to be around me, not only did I have tasty blood, I was also and emotional wreck. Not a good combination for him.

"It's okay Bella, we're all here for you now," he said sincerely. He reached his hand over and placed it on mine. I was touched at his concern, and amazed at how much better his self control was. I looked up at him and continued.

"I was so angry I started yelling at him, and he started yelling back. The long and the short of it was he's a violent drunk. He beat the living crap out of me and went to bed to sleep it off. In the morning, I got up, drove myself to the emergency room, went home and packed up everything. I waited until Henry got home from work so I could tell him in person that I was leaving. I wasn't afraid of him at all, I thought he was only violent when drunk, he'd never hit me when he was sober. Apparently I was wrong. He'd always had a little bit of a god complex, and he said I was his. He told me I didn't have the choice to leave. I told him he was wrong and tried to walk out. He threw me against the wall. He said he'd kill me before I left. I believed him. I think he was a sociopath, he was charming and sweet, and everyone always did things his way. The minute he didn't get what he wanted though, he turned violent. He was walking towards me and he had the same look in his eyes that James did in Phoenix. He really wanted to kill me Jasper. I didn't feel like dying, so I found his gun in the dresser behind me and shot him. Then I called 911 immediately and waited for the paramedics." I took a deep breath. This was the most I had said to anyone in as long as I could remember, probably since I had stopped seeing Jacob.

Jasper opened his mouth to say something when the door opened. The guard walked in.

"Mr. Hale? It's been over an hour, you need to wrap this up for today." Jasper smiled and nodded and the guard exited.

"I need to go now Bella, but I'll be back tomorrow. I don't want you to worry about any of this; it seems like an open and shut case of self defense, we shouldn't have any problems." He smiled reassuringly at me.

"Actually Jasper, it's a little bit more complicated than that. My father in law is going to complicate things a lot. He's quite influential. The very best I can hope for is a reduced sentence, no jury in this state is going to acquit me." Jasper opened his mouth as if to reply, but then though better of it. "I don't have time to explain now," I said in a rushed tone, "I'll explain tomorrow." I got up to leave. Jasper reached into his bag and handed me a box of stationary.

"A present from the family," he said with a wink, and then he added in a whisper, "look under the paper."

Thoroughly confused, I thanked him and the guard led me back to my cell. Of course when did the Cullens ever do anything normal? I shouldn't be surprised. What a strange couple of weeks it's been. I was afraid to but too much stock in Jasper's words about Edward, what if he was wrong? What if he was right? What would I do? My head spinning with questions, I sat down on my cot. For lack of anything better to do, I opened the box and lifted out the paper. Underneath the paper sat several envelopes, all addressed to me. The one on the top had my name written in very familiar, elegant script.

"Edward..." I breathed.


	4. Bella's Letters

Chapter 6

I had pulled all of the letters out of the box and lined them up on my cot. There were four in all. I decided to save Edward's until last. I wasn't sure if I was quite ready to handle his. I opened the one from Alice first. I unfolded the letter and smiled as I saw the paper. The writing was erratic and tilted in different directions all over the page. I could just imagine Alice bouncing excitedly as she wrote it. Pain ripped through my chest as I thought about how much I had missed all of the Cullens. They had been my family, and they abandoned me. A tear slid down my cheek and I brushed it away angrily. Why did I always have to cry? It was frustrating. I looked down at the letter.

Bella!

I've missed you so much. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye, I've regretted it so much. I'm so happy I'm going to get to see you, and don't worry about the trial, everything will turn out alright. Believe me, I know these things! Jasper will do a great job, he's been to law school twice, and he's really good at swaying people's opinions. ;-) As soon as we have you out of there, I'll take you shopping and get you some real clothes. For right now though I'll just pick up a few things I know you can't live without.

I know you're probably pretty upset at us, but don't worry we aren't going anywhere, no matter what my idiot brother says. But I don't think he'll say anything because he's learned his lesson. He has been unbearable these past five years, and I don't thing he's willing to repeat them. Don't be too hard on him, he was only trying to protect you, he wanted you to be safe. I think he's realized now that he can't live without you and you can't be safe whether or not we're there. He's coming to talk to you tomorrow, don't be too hard on him! He's already hard enough on himself for his own good. You know how masochistic he can be.

Anyways, I'll come with Jazz in the next couple of days to see you. Again, don't worry about anything we'll take care of it one way or another. Also, we're working on trying to get you bailed out. Then we'll get you proper facilities!

Love, Alice

P.S. There is guard coming around the corner, you might want to hid Edward and Emmett's letter, they are the only ones that have something in it they shouldn't read.

I laughed quietly at Alice, and stuck all the letters under my mattress. The guard walked by, and continued down the hall. As his footsteps faded, I carefully retrieved the envelopes. I opened Emmett's letter next. He had surprisingly messy handwriting, and it took me a minute to decipher it.

Hey little sis, long time no see!

I'm so glad our idiot brother let us come down here to help you! If he hadn't agreed I was going to come down anyways and break you out. I've been watching this really cool show called Prison Break so I know a lot about how to do it. Probably though I would just break the wall and take you with me. More efficient. Anyways, you should have seen Edward's reaction when he saw you on tv and he realized that leaving hadn't kept you safe at all. Serves him right, we all told him he was being stupid. He could have avoided all of his misery if he just listened to me.

Anyways, don't worry, we'll get you out of there, and if we can't get you acquitted we'll just break you out. Personally, I'm hoping for option B. Edward said we can't do that until it's our only option though. He's no fun. See you soon my favorite little human!

Love, Emmett

P.S. It's a good thing you killed that guy, otherwise I would have killed him. And not as humanely.

I had to laugh out loud at Emmett's last line; I didn't have any doubt that was true. The one thing that was nagging at me was the fact that everything I had read so far had mentioned Edward as if nothing had changed. As if maybe he still loved me. I was unwillingly getting my hopes up, and that worried me. I didn't know what I would do if they were crushed again. And then again...he did come back for me. By all of his family's accounts, he has been miserable too. If he was so damn miserable, then why did he wait until now to find me? It was probably because he just felt guilty about me being in jail. But then again...if he just felt guilty why would he bring his entire family and have his brother represent me instead of just hiring a really good lawyer? God knows they could afford it. I sighed in frustration. If I just read Edward's letter now, it might answer a lot of my questions. But then there was a good chance I wouldn't be in any condition afterwards to read the last letter. So dutifully, I slit open Esme's letter and read it through.

It was very sweet and very comforting. Typical Esme. It told me about her life when she was human, and about how she had an abusive husband. She was able to escape her husband though, as I had been attempting to do. She assured me than everything was going to be alright, and they would work out the details. I smiled at her letter, she was always knew what to say to me. She truly was my second mother, even after all these years.

I knew I had put off reading Edward's letter for as long as I could. I was terrified to open it, terrified to find what he had written. It was the moment of truth. I took a deep breath and unfolded the letter. It looked like he had a difficult time writing it, his usual elegant script was shaky and messy in some places. As if he'd had as hard of a time writing it as I was having reading it. Halfway through I broke down, and had to wash my face before I could continue. It was everything I had dreamed of for the last five years and more. It was absolutely perfect.

"I forgive you Edward," I murmured to myself.

AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger, I promise you'll get to find out what the letter said in the next chapter. I should have it posted today or tomorrow at the very latest. Thank you so much for your encouraging reviews, I love getting them! Questions? Comments? Critiques? Leave me a review!


	5. Edward's Letter

Chapter 7

Edward's Point of View

We waited in the hotel for Jasper to return. I was almost frantic with worry. I desperately hoped that Bella was doing well; the thought of her in a prison sickened me. I should have been there to protect her from that monster. If I hadn't left she never would have been put into that position. Could I do nothing right? I left to keep her safe for God's sake, not to-

"It's not your fault you know." Alice's voice cut into my thoughts.

"I thought I was the mind reader," I replied grumpily. I was annoyed at Alice for interrupting my thoughts, no matter how masochistic and self deprecating they were. I deserved every one of them. She was saved from replying by Jasper's arrival. I immediately searched his mind for a clue, any clue of how my beautiful Bella was doing. I saw her face in his mind, she looked determined yet broken. She still had cuts and bruises covering her. I saw her limping walk from what I guessed were a couple of broken toes as the guard escorted her down the hall. I wasn't getting answers from Jasper's mind fast enough. I was in a panicked frenzy, I wanted to know everything and I needed to know it now. Jasper sensed my emotions and calmed me down long enough for me to sit down and listen to him recount his visit.

She had been existing for other's expectations. She only went to college because Charlie expected her to. The only reason she did _anything_ was because others wanted her to. I was comforted a little by the fact that she hadn't actually loved her husband. I grieved at the story she told Jasper, because I could have prevented it. I put my head in my hands and thought about everything Jasper had told me. I resolved that I was going to do everything in my power to get her out of this situation. Then if she would have me, I would gladly provide for her every whim just for the privilege of being in her presence again.

When Jasper was finished recounting his visit, I decided to ask the one question that had been on my mind. "Jasper? Did you give her the letters? Did she say anything?" If she threw my letter back in his face I would understand, it was the least I deserved. But I desperately hoped that she had looked at it, at least given me the chance to explain myself.

"I did give it to her, but she didn't have time to read it while I was there. By the time I got through all the legal crap and was actually able to see her, we only had an hour." He looked apologetically at me, and his thoughts added an apology. It wasn't his fault I knew, but I didn't know how much longer I could contain myself as I waited.

"It's alright Jasper; I suppose I'll get my chance to talk to her tomorrow." He nodded. I heard Carlisle enter the room and clear his throat to catch our attention.

"I think we should probably go hunt before tomorrow, it's been several days, and as we know her blood does have an exceptionally enticing smell." _Especially to you Edward_ he silently added. I sighed, knowing he was right. I hadn't been around her for five years; it was going to take a while for me to build up my self control again. I stood from the couch to follow Carlisle when Alice ran into the room. I hadn't even really noticed that she had left so I was mildly surprised to see her.

_You need to see this Edward_ she thought. I nodded, showing her she had my attention and she started replaying her vision for me.

_Bella sat on a cot in a gray room by herself. In front of her she had a pile of opened letters, and in her hand she had an envelope. My envelope. She slowly pulled my letter out and began reading it. She was silently crying and she got up and washed her face in the small basin in the corner of her cell. She then returned to the cot and picked my letter up again. After what seemed like an eternity, she clutched the letter to herself and said "I forgive you Edward..."_

My dead heart leaped in my chest and I grabbed Alice in a crushing hug and twirled her around the room. "Yes!" I cried, "Yes!" It was far more than I had expected or deserved. I put Alice down and turned around to see the rest of my family staring at me incredulously. Most of their thoughts were wondering if I had finally lost it. I hadn't been happy in five years and to see unadulterated joy out of the blue...no wonder they thought I was crazy.

The letter I had written wasn't actually a very accurate description of my feelings, if only because no words existing can describe the way I feel. There is no way I can depict exactly how deeply I regret my actions or even how much I love her. The anger and remorse I feel are no easy matter to convey, especially on paper. I wasn't at all satisfied with what I had finally written, but there hadn't been any more time for me to try to perfect it. In the end, Jasper had made me sign my name and seal it in an envelope. The letter was completely inadequate, but I was unable to express my feelings any better. I thought back to my words and again wished I had been able to convey myself better.

My Dearest Bella,

I understand if you never want to speak with me again, after all I have done to you it is the least I deserve. If you will allow me however, I would like a chance to explain my actions to you. You at least deserve to know the truth. I don't expect you to forgive me, what I did was unforgivable.

Please know that everything I told you in the forest that day was a falsity, one that would have condemned me to hell were I not already. I thought that by leaving I would ensure your safety. Every moment you spent with me I was putting you in more and more danger, simply by being there. I expected that you would move on and have a happy normal human life. The possibility that your human life might not be happy, never crossed my mind.

As you know, I am essentially a selfish creature. Even though I resolved not to intrude on your life anymore, after Alice brought me back I couldn't help myself. I tried to look you up three years ago, but by that point I thought you were happy, and that you had moved on. Charlie's thoughts revealed that you had friends and were doing well in school. I followed your progress in college, and I was so proud of you for graduating with honors. If I'd had any idea of this current situation, please believe that I would have been there in an instant.

I've never stopped loving you, and I think of you constantly. I don't deserve your forgiveness, but know that you are still the most important thing in my world. I apologize for my idiocy.

Yours Forever,

Edward

Completely inadequate. But it was all I had. I turned to Carlisle, ready to prepare myself for tomorrow. I suddenly felt optimistic for the first time in years.


	6. Reunion

Chapter 8

I woke up feeling anxious the next morning. The feeling stayed with me all through my state sponsored breakfast, and persisted throughout my morning ablutions. I had no idea when the Cullens would turn up. Yesterday Jasper hadn't shown up until late in the day, so I figured I might have several hours to plan what I was going to say to Edward.

It was a difficult situation, trying to figure out what say to my soul mate/ex-boyfriend when he comes calling on me while I'm in jail for my husband's murder. Honestly, who has to face these situations? The answer of course, is me. I really am a danger magnet.

My musings were interrupted by a voice from the hallway. I turned and broke into a huge grin when I saw Jasper and Carlisle standing there. I hadn't felt so optimistic in days. I was slightly disappointed to note Edward's absence. Then again, that might have been a good thing; I'm not sure I could restrain myself from flinging my arms around him and making a scene. I was led down the hallway to a different room this time, one that looked strangely private for a prison. The guard unlocked my hands and I looked at him incredulously.

"What no handcuffs?" I asked. The guard didn't even bother answering and walked straight out the door. I noticed that only Carlisle had followed me in, and now we were alone in the room. He smiled benevolently at me.

"Good morning Bella, I'm glad to see you," he was positively beaming.

"You have no idea how great it is to see you," and before I could stop myself I threw my arms around him. Embarrassed I stepped back only to see him smile even wider.

"I'd like to check over your injuries Bella, if that's alright with you. I don't like the look of that cut on your arm." I nodded sat down. He began to poke and prod me as he spoke. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been alright I guess," I replied, trying to think of something non-pathetic to talk to him about.

"If this is alright, I'd hate to see what bad is," he said with a chuckle.

"Ok fine, I've been better. Obviously. I- ouch!" Pain shot through my body as he poked my ribs. The examination took most of my concentration after that, everywhere Carlisle poked hurt. Finally, he said he was finished.

"How did you get the guard to leave?" I asked curiously, suddenly realizing they had left me alone for the longest period of time they had done so in my entire stay here.

"We have our ways," he smiled and winked at me. Of course they did, stupid vampires.

Since Carlisle declared me fit and ready to go, the guard came back in, and back on went the handcuffs. Darn, I had hoped they'd forgotten about those. We walked into the same room Jasper and I had used yesterday. There was one major difference however. Someone was already in the seat that I had used. Someone with disheveled bronze hair...someone who was unbelievably beautiful.

"Edward..." was all I could manage before I was crushed in his arms. He was gentle (so as not to damage my sprained rib) but at the same time powerful. After a moment he seemed to realize that I wasn't returning his hug and he stepped back looking ashamed.

"I apologize for being so forward..." he said obviously crestfallen.

"No!" I exclaimed hurriedly walking towards him, "It's just that...I held up my wrists to show him the handcuffs.

"Oh!" Comprehension crossed his face and then a scowl took it's place. He hadn't changed a bit. I stepped forward and I lay my head on his chest. It was the closest I could really come to hugging him. He wrapped his arms around me and sighed.

"I missed you," I whispered looking up at him. He was even more dazzling than I remembered. It felt like a dream I was going to wake up from at any moment. I tried to prolong the moment as I inhaled his scent. If I was going to wake up from this I wanted to get as much of it as I could first.

He seemed at a loss for words at he gazed down at me with love and protectiveness. "I missed you...so much. I love you Bella, can you possibly forgive me for my foolishness? I was an idiot, and I don't deserve anything from you. If you could possibly..." I covered his mouth with my hand.

"I already forgave you. The past five years mean nothing. I am scared though," I confessed. A runaway tear slipped down my cheek. Edward reached down and wiped it away.

"You don't need to be scared. I promise I will get you out of here." I knew he would, I could see the determination and sincerity in his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of jail Edward," I explained. "I'm afraid that this is all too good to be true...that I'm going to wake up and find that I've imagined it all." He looked pained.

"I can't apologize enough for what I've done to you. I will prove myself though, I promise." He looked me straight in the eyes and my brain grew foggy. I sucked in a breath and he suddenly let me go and sat back down at the table.

"Come sit down Bella," he instructed. I nodded mutely and walked over and sat down. "The guard was checking in to make sure everything was still alright," he explained in a low tone.

"Oh..." was all I could manage, since my mind was still reeling. Suddenly I noticed that Jasper and Carlisle were still in the room smiling from ear to ear. I blushed when realized they had witnessed the entire scene.

"Don't be embarrassed Bella," Jasper said still smiling, "You have no idea how unendurable his mood has been for the past five years." I smiled, guessing it probably had matched my own. Poor Jasper.

Feeling very giddy and happy I leaned in close to the table and whispered conspiratorially, "so, how are you going to spring me?"

All three vampire's mouths fell open in shock.

"What?" I asked confused.


	7. Jasper's Plan

Chapter 9

Edward's Point of View

"How did you know?" I asked unbelievingly. I wondered if Emmett had told her in his letter his 'plan' to break her out. I knew I should have read it first. I hadn't even heard anything in his mind about it. He must be getting better at blocking his thoughts. What stunned me even more was that she would actually rather we break her out of jail than try to get her out legitimately.

"Is that what you want?" I asked hesitantly. If it was what she wanted I wouldn't hesitate to do it, but I was very surprised to say the least.

Her face looked puzzled for a moment then she rolled her eyes at me. "Relax guys, it was a joke! You don't honestly believe that I would..." she trailed off with a funny expression on her face. "Oh jeez, you thought I listened to Emmett," she started laughing, really hard. "How...dumb...do...you...think..." whatever else she wanted to say was lost in the laughter.

I scowled. It was just as frustrating now as it was five years ago trying to figure her out. If I could have read her mind I would have been able to realize she was joking immediately. As her laughter died out she struggled to compose herself.

"It's not that ridiculous of an idea," I mumbled looking at the table. I was still pretty embarrassed at not having realized she was joking. Jasper nodded his agreement.

"Seriously?" she said looking from my face to his, "That seems a little extreme."

"Well of course it's a last ditch effort," I told her taking her small hands in mine, "but if we are left with no other options we'll do what's necessary." She regarded me for a long moment, and I couldn't tell whether she was angry, amused, or relieved. "What are you thinking?" I asked her, wishing for the thousandth time that I could read her mind.

"I'm not sure whether to be angry at you or happy that no matter what happens I won't have to spend the rest of my life here," she admitted. "However, I suppose at this point being concerned about the laws is kind of pointless."

I winced at her casual mention of the reason she was in here. I couldn't imagine such a perfect creature killing anyone, and the image of her doing so haunted me. It was just another reminder of my inadequacy at protecting her. She saw the look on my face and mistook my expression for revulsion.

"I did what I had to Edward, I don't regret it in the slightest," she gazed at me through her dark lashes looking for a reaction. Quickly I realized my mistake and moved to assure her.

"It's not that Bella, I'm glad you did what you had to. I just should have been there to protect you. If I hadn't been so caught up in thinking about the danger you were in around me I would have been there and-"

"This has got to stop Edward," she said sharply. I was shocked; I had never heard that tone of voice from her. "First of all, it is not your job to do what is best for me. That is for me to decide. Second of all, you need to end this self-loathing crap. It's one thing to realize you've made a mistake, but you dwell on it and go into this defeating cycle. Third of all if you continue this, what reassurance do I have that you won't leave again? This is exactly the same thing you did before you decided to leave, and frankly I don't think I can survive you leaving again. And fourth...well, I don't guess I actually have a fourth on the list but I think I've made my point."

Our jaws were all hanging open in shock again. Bella had become assertive. I was ashamed that her words held a lot of truth to them. I looked down at my hands ashamed of myself.

"I'm sorry Bella; you are of course, entirely right. Forgive an idiot?" I leaned close, I wondered if I could still dazzle her after all these years. I could.

She pulled back shaking the dazed look off her face, "That's hardly a fair way to get me to forgive you Edward!" I smiled impishly at her. An idea had just occurred to me, if she wasn't going to let me trick her into forgiving me, I would do something else. Before she could protest, I swept her up and tenderly brought my lips to hers. She stiffened slightly and relaxed into my embrace. After several minutes I reluctantly realized she needed to breathe and pulled away.

"Alright, I forgive you. But remember what I said. I mean it." She smiled happily up at me panting slightly.

"I promise," I said with as much sincerity as I could muster.

"Good," she replied turning towards Carlisle and Jasper. "Now, before I was so rudely interrupted, what I meant to say was what is the game plan for getting me released?" Jasper looked excited at the prospect of talking about law. Way too excited.

"Well Bella, you'll be happy to know I got your arraignment scheduled for the day after tomorrow!" She looked at him blankly.

"My what?"

"You know your arraignment." Jasper was still waiting for her to show her excitement. I wasn't exactly sure what an arraignment was either; my specialty had never been law. I wasn't about to let Jasper know that however.

"I don't speak legal mumbo jumbo Jasper, what is an arraignment?" Bella demanded.

He sighed dramatically. "Bella, your arraignment is the meeting that you have with the judge where they set bail among other things. Technically it should have already taken place a week ago, but given your lack of legal counsel you seem to have fallen through the cracks. I fixed it though!" He was so proud of himself I felt almost like I was looking at a child bragging about an A on a test.

Bella laughed and reached her hand out and placed it on Jasper's arm. "Thank you Jasper, I really appreciate you doing all this for me."

Jasper beamed happily. I suddenly felt as happy as Jasper looked.

"Oh I just knew everything would work out!" Carlisle exclaimed. It was not a typical statement for Carlisle to make; he was generally much more quiet and reserved. I looked at him puzzled at the dozens of happy thoughts flitting through his mind before I realized it was Jasper's power making us all feel happy.

Bella laughed loudly and said, "you have no idea how much I've missed that! Your power rocks Jasper."

"I know," he said modestly. "So my plan is really simple Bella. If we can't get a fair trial we'll just use the unfair resources we have at our disposal tip it in our favor. Luckily the senator doesn't have the same advantages we do."

"Thank God," Bella replied. "I'd hate to think what would happen if he did, besides my being executed via public hanging." I really didn't like the sound of this guy. I resolved right then that if he interfered with our efforts in freeing Bella, he would pay. I may not have been able to save her from Henry junior, but now that I was here there was no way Henry senior would ever hurt her.

We spent the rest of the day planning how we were going to present Bella's case and try to get the charges dropped. We had a pretty solid case and I was fairly confident we would have Bella free and clear very soon. I was wrong.

AN: Thanks again for all the great feedback guys, it means a lot to me! My little sister complained that I didn't acknowledge her, so I'd like to take a moment to say "Thank you Jill! Without you, I never would have found Twilight. Also, thank you for your Twilight and New Moon books...when I said I'd give them back...I lied! HAHAHA!


	8. Revelations

Chapter 10

We spent a little time the next day talking about my case, but most of it was spent on other things. Alice and Edward had come with Jasper, so most of the conversation centered on happier things than my husband's demise. Alice apologized for not having seen what was coming so she could warn me. At that I just had to laugh and sarcastically comment, "Yeah, because you have so much control of what visions come to you."

I was surprised at just how normal I felt now that Edward was back. The hole in my heart had disappeared, and hadn't resurfaced since I had forgiven him. In turn, he was surprised at how easily I forgave him and accepted him back in the face of what he referred to as his 'unforgivable error'. In all of the excitement of seeing my long lost family again, I forgot to explain why this wouldn't be an open and shut case to Jasper.

Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly considering it was the Cullens) they had managed to get my conditions vastly improved in the two days they had been there. This even extended to getting me edible food for lunch, something I was vastly grateful for. Jail food was about on par with college cafeteria food (in other words, it sucked).

The next day Alice showed up at my cell bright and early, with what looked suspiciously like an outfit. The guard let her in and I eyed her suspiciously.

"Alice, what is that?" I asked still staring at her.

"Clothes silly, you didn't think you were going to appear in court in your orange jumpsuit did you?" She was still smiling as she pushed the clothes bad towards me.

"Actually I did. That's how they always show it on tv." I was terrified at what horror Alice could have picked out.

"Well, you're not. Now you can put it on or I'm going to put it on you myself. Trust me, you'll look fabulous." Knowing I would never win this argument, I took the bag from her. Inside was a blue (of course) suit that nicely complimented my complexion.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with impressing Edward would it Alice?" She smiled sweetly.

"Of course not Bella, clothes make the man and all that. And gets you acquitted." She turned around to give me a little privacy as I changed.

"Um, you wouldn't happen to have seen anything about the arraignment today have you?" I asked Alice nervously.

"I have, and you don't need to worry about a thing," she assured me. Feeling slightly more optimistic I finished buttoning my shirt and shrugged on the jacket. It was obviously an expensive suit, and the fabric was soft a comfortable. The skirt fell just below my knees and swished nicely as I walked. It was defiantly the most comfortable thing I had put on in over a week.

I was 'escorted' to the courthouse and we walked into the courtroom. Jasper and Edward were already there as well as the rest of the family. I assumed they were all posing as legal council. I waved at Emmett and Esme and, they both beamed. I hadn't gotten a chance to see them yet, I had only read their letters. I mouthed "Thank you for the letters," and they both nodded happily.

I looked at Edward and he smiled at me lovingly. It was hard not to throw myself into his arms, but I took comfort in the fact that if we could get this resolved I would never have to restrain myself again. Suddenly Alice gasped and Edward looked alarmed. By the look on Alice's face I could tell she was having a vision. From the look on Edward's face I could tell it probably wasn't a very good vision.

They started speaking in hushed tones, and I sat down next to my 'Lawyer'. "What is going on Jasper?" I asked urgently.

"They aren't quite sure," he whispered back. He started rolling a pen between his hands nervously. This didn't look good. "Alice just had a vision that drastically differs from the one she had this morning. They can't figure out what's changed."

Before I could ask how it differed, a voiced rang out. "All rise for the honorable Judge Whiting."

As I stood, I whispered quietly to Jasper, "I'll tell you what changed. I can almost guarantee that isn't the judge I originally started out with." Jasper frowned and shuffled through some papers, as we sat.

"You're right, it was originally supposed to be Judge Hancock, but why would that make a difference?"

"I'll explain later," I promised. Judge Whiting was one of the oldest and most respected judges in the state. He was also one of the oldest and closest friends of my father-in-law. I idly wondered what strings he had pulled to get my case reassigned to him. I supposed it didn't matter, but I knew my hope of bail was gone. He was going to make my life as miserable as possible; he was deeply indebted to the good old senator.

Judge Whiting peered balefully down at me. The proceedings were short and to the point. I was being charged with first degree murder. I was considered too much of a run risk, so I wasn't being given the option of bail. Big surprise. At some point, I was pretty sure I heard some growling coming from behind me. I chose to ignore it. Jasper entered my plea of 'not guilty', and we were done.

Things had just gotten a lot more complicated. At the end, I stood up to be escorted back out. I turned around slightly and shrugged sadly at the Cullens. Emmett looked like he wanted to kill something (or someone). Edward matched his murderous expression. I just hoped I didn't hear about the unfortunate disappearance of Mr. Jeffery Whiting tomorrow.

Chapter 11

Once I was back in the confines of my jail cell, I felt compelled to change back into the orange jumpsuit. The source of this urge was the guard who said, "Please change back into your uniform."

After I had done so, she came back to take me back down to the little conference room. I wondered if everyone got to meet with their lawyers this much, or if it was just because the Cullens were so persuasive. In the room Edward, Jasper, and Emmett waited for me. The sight of Emmett in a suit was so funny I couldn't contain my giggles. I was met with three pairs of flashing topaz eyes. Apparently, they were not amused.

"What could possibly be funny at a time like this?" Edward demanded.

"Have you looked at Emmett lately?" I asked still smiling. Just because I was in deep crap didn't mean I couldn't still enjoy everyday simple pleasures. Such as Emmett in a suit.

"What did I do?" Emmett demanded.

"You didn't _do_ anything," I explained in an exaggerated voice, "You just look so…so, wrong in a suit." Emmett smiled sharing in the joke. I was glad he wasn't offended.

Edward simply sighed and pulled out a chair for me. I sat down, reveling in the fact someone had 'convinced' the guard outside the door that handcuffs were unnecessary in this room.

"Do you want to tell us what the hell just went on back there?" Edward demanded as soon as I sat down. I was surprised he hadn't simply read the judge's mind and found out for himself. The surprise must have shown because Edward narrowed his eyes at me.

"You didn't just read his mind?" I asked confused.

"No, I was too angry, and his thoughts were too set on, _deny bail, and charge with first degree murder._ He kept repeating it in his mind. You want to tell us why?"

I sighed. I realized I had promised to explain in more detail to Jasper why this wouldn't be an open and shut case, but had never gotten around to doing so. I had been understandably distracted by apologies and reunions. I was also interested in the contents of judge Whiting's thoughts. I had always suspected him of being dim, but I had never comprehended just how empty headed he truly was. He was the perfect puppet.

"Well, my _loving_ husband Henry," my voice dripped with sarcasm, "was kind of a shady lawyer. I'm pretty sure his father; Henry senior used his influence and money to buy him through law school. Anyways, Henry senior is congressmen now, and a rather influential one. In fact, he owns quite a few policemen, lawyers, prosecutors…and judges." Understanding flickered in all of their eyes.

"Well, the short of it is, Henry senior is ticked off I killed Henry junior. And I imagine he wants revenge. Like that stunt in the courtroom today. We were assigned a different judge, but somehow it was conveniently arranged that the case got switched to one of Henry's judges. I expect that things like this are about to become quite commonplace."

I looked up at the three vampires in the room. If I had thought they looked murderous before, now they looked positively deadly. Jasper and Edward seemed to be having some sort of mental conversation, because Edward kept nodding.

"We need to get you out of here now," Edward finally said to me. I stared at him.

"What happened to that being plan B?" I was pretty shocked Edward was willing to make me a fugitive so easily.

"Your Father-in-law," Edward managed to make the word sound like the vilest of curses, "Happened. I'm not going to risk your safety to a maniac like that."

"So what, you guys are just giving up and letting him win?" I asked incredulously. They all three were staring at me resolutely. I wasn't sure if I was ready to become and escapee so I decided to appeal to their pride. "Don't you think it would crush him more to pull every string he can and still fail?" Emmett's eyes lit up in thought. At least I was getting through to one of them.

"You've got Alice, so you can see anything he might be planning coming. If he plans on hurting me, it won't be a spur of the moment decision, so you'll have plenty of time to yank me out of here." Edward sighed defeated.

"You are right of course. I was just so shocked that they could even think that you planned that monster's murder beforehand…" he trailed off looking at me with a pained expression.

"Who thought that?" I asked looking from face to face. I knew they were reporting it on tv, but I never thought anyone would seriously believe it.

"That's what first degree murder is," Jasper finally said, "It means they think it was premeditated."

"Are you kidding me? What part of **he tried to kill me** don't they understand?" I was irate. It was ridiculous anyone could even think that, must less seriously believe it.

"Don't worry about it Bella," Emmett said squeezing me into a hug. "You know, I could kill him if you like!"

"NO!" Edward bellowed. I looked at Edward's angry face and smiled at him.

"Don't worry, I wasn't going to let him," I soothed. I brushed my hand through his hair and rested my palm on his cheek.

"It was just an idea," Emmett grumbled. He sounded disappointed. This was going to be a long ordeal, I could tell that much.


	9. Emmett's somewhat brilliant plan

Chapter 12

Edward's Point of view

It was hard to leave her at the end of the day, and in the end I dazzled the guard into letting me stay just a few more minutes. Finally though, I couldn't delay anymore and Emmett, Jasper, and I left. Leaving her, for even such a short amount of time hurt me deeply; I never wanted to let her out of my sight again. I promised her that we would return as early in the morning as we could manage.

As we walked back to our car, I was pulled from my own brooding thoughts by Emmett's varied and wild ones. I was being assaulted with images of him following Judge Whiting and sneaking through alleyways. I sincerely hoped he was not planning on killing him without Bella or mine's consent. We got into the car and I pulled out of the lot and headed back for our hotel. I was about to ask Emmett what he was planning when he spoke up.

"Guys, I have a really good idea." Oh boy. Emmett's last 'really good idea' had included public nudity.

"I'll bet you do," Jasper murmured. I could tell through his thoughts that Emmett was very excited and…hyper? That did not bode well.

"This wouldn't somehow involve killing anyone would it Emmett?" I asked quickly.

"Of course not!" He scoffed. Then he smiled widely again. This was a _very_ bad sign. "I was thinking about how this trial isn't going to go very well with this judge. Then I realized we don't actually have to kill him to get rid of him, just discredit him. If we exposed what he was doing to the public, they wouldn't have any choice but to fire him or remove him from office or whatever."

"Actually Emmett, that is a really good idea," Jasper mused. I was surprised too. Most of Emmett's ideas were exactly the opposite of good. Emmett beamed even more, and he took Jasper's words as a cue to continue highlighting his plan.

"I was thinking that Edward and I can follow him around, and Edward can read his mind until we figure out how exactly he is being bribed, and then we can just get proof." I was even more shocked. I wondered how on earth he had come up with such a good plan. It was uncanny. What touched me though was that his thoughts betrayed his desire to help Bella. He wanted more than ever to protect the girl he considered his little sister.

"Alright Emmett, we'll drop Jasper off at home to fill the others in, and then we'll start now," I told him. His enthusiasm was wearing off on me; I liked the idea of being able to actively do something to help Bella all night instead of just brewing over her absence.

I pulled up to the curb and Jasper got out. Emmett jumped out of the car too, with a hurried, "I'll be right back." That made me suspicious. Emmett returned a few moments later with a backpack full of stuff.

I sighed. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. "What's in the bag?"

He boomed out a laugh and unzipped it. "I went inside to throw together several spy essentials, but Alice already beat me to it. Look, she even packed us less obvious clothes! I never would have thought of that."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breathe. He was taking our spy expedition way too seriously. "What other spy essentials did our dear sister pack for us?" I asked resigning myself. Even if Emmett was taking this to the extreme, it was still a worthwhile venture.

"Well, she gave us each a set of black clothes, a small camera, sunglasses, two ski masks, and a voice recorder! We're like real spies!" I knew Alice did this just to annoy me. I made a mental note to get Alice back for this later.

In the end, I was able to talk Emmett out of the ski masks. He was adamant about the black clothes though, even when I pointed out that black would make us stand out even more by emphasizing our pale skin.

We went back to the courthouse and I was surprised to discover Judge Whiting's distinct stench still strongly in the air. So strongly in fact, that I suspected he was still there. Emmett and I let ourselves in through a side door and we tried to figure out which office was his. We followed his smell through the building until we came to a door marked, **The office of Judge Whiting**.

What was even more puzzling was the noise coming from behind the door. I stood there for a moment before I realized exactly what was going on behind that door. I shrank back in revulsion murmuring, "disgusting," under my breath. I turned to Emmett and discovered that he was no longer by my side.

I walked down the hall following his scent, desperately hoping that he hadn't done something stupid. After a few minutes rolled by, Emmett suddenly appeared by my side. Images of his scaling the building flooded my mind. Images of him taking pictures of Judge Whiting also flowed in.

"Emmett! I did not need to see that!" I whisper furiously at him. "Why would you even take those pictures?"

"We needed them bro. Come on, we'll go wait across the street for him to finish up." I was afraid to ask Emmett exactly what he needed them for. Eventually, the Judge and the girl exited the building. I assumed she was some sort of intern; she couldn't have been much older than Bella. Ugh. I suppressed a disgusted shiver.

Soon, we were following the Judge's car down the street. After thirty minutes or so he pulled into a driveway of a large white house. We kept driving and parked a block away. We watched at a distance as he ate dinner with his wife and then went upstairs to bed. Strange noises came faintly from the upstairs, and I deduced he was doing the same thing with his wife than he had been doing with the girl earlier. He was vile.

Eventually we gave up, realizing all of his 'recreational' activities had caught up to him and he was now asleep. We drove back to the hotel to inform our family of our lack of progress.

Alice met us at the door practically bounding. "You guys have to go back tomorrow," she said. I started to protest telling her that I was going to see Bella tomorrow when I caught the vision that had played through her mind earlier. We would get what we needed tomorrow if we followed him, so I had no other choice.

I agreed with Alice and asked Emmett if he wanted to hunt tomorrow since we would be around quite a few people. Jasper asked to come with us too since his constant contact with Bella in confined spaces was wearing on him. Esme and Alice decided to come too since they would be visiting Bella tomorrow. Since our rental car only fit five people Carlisle stayed behind opting for some time to catch up on his reading. Rosalie didn't want to stay behind so she stomped off in the direction of hers and Emmett's suite.

It was just nearing midnight when we sat off towards the city limits. I was again in considerably good spirits knowing that tomorrow I would be able to solve at least one of Bella's problems.

When we got to our destination, everyone exited the car quickly and went in different directions. I noticed that Alice had left her purse in the car. Why she had even brought her purse hunting escaped me.

Suddenly, I was hit with an inspiration for revenge on Alice for the spy kit. Since she was hunting, it was unlikely she was going to have any visions of what I was planning. If I could catch up to her and keep her busy until we got back to the car I might actually have a chance at pranking Alice. Laughing evilly to myself I searched for the one thing I needed for this prank.

Once I found it I headed back to the car and put my plan into action. She deserved it for encouraging Emmett in his "spy activities".


	10. Emmett's Fall from Brilliance

AN: This is kind of a silly chapter, but it helps move the plot forward, so the next one after this should have more of the action in it. Thanks for all the great reviews, I enjoy them so much!

Chapter 13

The next morning I was disappointed when I saw that Edward hadn't come after all. I was glad to see Esme though, since I had only seen her briefly at my arraignment. I ran to hug her (I was still handcuff free) and she embraced me enthusiastically. After a round of motherly questions I settled down at the table with Alice and Jasper.

"Well, what are we talking about today?" I asked. Jasper started to reply but Alice let out a string of words that was way to fast for my human ears to process. "Uh…what was that Alice?"

She took a breath and started over, speaking slower this time. "I said I have the funniest story for you Bella!" She squealed and laughed excitedly. "So yesterday, after they left, Emmett had this great idea about how to get rid of Judge Whiting."

I let out my frustration. "I told him not to kill anyone!" This was said a lot louder than I meant it to be, so I turned quickly to make sure the guard outside hadn't heard my exclamation. Luckily, she hadn't.

"No, no silly! He had an idea about how to make sure he wasn't the one presiding over your case," Alice made this sound like this was the most natural thing in the world.

"Okay…what was it?" I couldn't imagine it was a very great idea. Right before they left five years ago, Emmett's last great idea involved a chicken and a plunger.

"It was quite brilliant actually," Jasper leaned forward conspiratorially. That couldn't be right. Emmett? Brilliant? I giggled at the thought. Jasper ignored it and continued. "He pointed out that our main problem right now is getting you a fair trial, and there is no chance of that with Whiting in the picture. So he merely suggested that we discredit the Judge so your trial will get assigned to someone else." Jasper sat back looking pleased. I looked from Esme to Alice.

"Did Emmett really come up with that?" Alice nodded. "Wow, I never would have expected that from Emmett. I'll have to thank him later."

"Anyways," cut in Alice, "Emmett wanted to dress up like spies and follow Whiting. Luckily I saw it about and hour before they got home so I had time to do some shopping. I bought them black clothes and ski masks, sunglasses, a camera, and voice recorder."

"Wait," I asked, "you bought them ski masks and sunglasses? Why both?"

She shrugged and said, "Because I knew Edward wouldn't wear the ski mask."

"But he wore the sunglass even thought it was night?" I questioned.

"Well…no. But they defiantly looked like spy sunglasses. I couldn't resist!" That I could believe.

"Ah…well why did you buy them a camera and a voice recorder? Wouldn't a camcorder have been more efficient?" Alice's eyebrows pulled together as she thought about it.

"You know…I never thought about that. Good thinking Bella!" And before another word had been spoken Alice already had her cell phone to her ear.

"Hi, Edward? I was just talking to…wait, what do you mean you lost Whiting? That idiot did what? …Why on earth would you let him wander off alone, you know he can't be trusted when he gets excited like this! … He can't even eat cotton candy. Ok, well let me ask Bella." Alice covered the mouthpiece on her phone and whispered in a disgusted tone, "They lost Whiting, any idea where he might be heading? In my vision it looked like it was a private backroom of a restaurant or something. It was decorated in a lot of cream and tan colors with some abstract horse paintings on the wall."

I thought about all the restaurants I'd been to in the city and decided on one that was most likely where they were describing. Henry had dragged me along to it tons of times, and we ate there with his parents several times. "If I had to guess it would be the Nighthorse on 12th and Meadow. Their colors are similar, although I don't know if they have a backroom."

Alice relayed that information to Edward and also told him to pick up a video camera. I heard Emmett protest in the background, but she hung up and cut him off. "That idiot," she fumed. I guessed Emmett's reign as brilliant was now officially over.

"What was that about cotton candy?" I asked

"While Edward and Emmett were waiting outside the courthouse he saw a vendor that had bags of cotton candy. He told Edward he wanted to go get some, and jumped out of the car. Of course, as soon as he did Whiting came out of the building and Edward had to chase down Emmett since he had the camera and recorder in his pocket." She scowled. Esme was having a hard time not laughing at the exploits of her 'special' child.

"I hate to ask, but why did Emmett want cotton candy?" I was genuinely curious. It couldn't be the flavor, since vampires didn't like human food.

"I have no idea," Alice grumbled. "My guess is he wanted it for a prank." That made more sense. "Speaking of pranks, I never got to finish my story! So last night, Emmett finally got Edward to agree to wear the black clothes while they followed Whiting, as long as they didn't wear the ski masks. So Emmett and Edward followed Whiting around for a while and then came back home. Edward was mad about my encouraging Emmett so he wanted to get back at me." Alice was smiling broadly at this, so my guess was that Edward hadn't gotten the upper hand.

"So, when the boys got home we went hunting since it's been a couple of days and we've been around humans a lot more lately. When we got there I was looking for a good spot to hunt when I caught a vision. It's a good thing too, because I would have had to kill Edward if he did what he was planning."

"What was he planning?" I asked curiously.

"Well, he caught a chipmunk from the woods and was going to leave it in my purse. Then he was going to make it look like the chipmunk had chewed up all of my credit cards, and leave the pieces in the bottom. After I saw what he was planning I ran back to the car and took my purse out and hid it in the woods. Then I left Edward his own animal friend its place." I was shaking with laughter, it sounded like I had missed a lot of worthwhile moments last night.

"What did you leave Alice?" I giggled.

"A skunk!" She shrieked. At that Esme and Jasper shuddered.

"It smelled awful," Jasper said seriously, "We had to make Edward run home, it was that bad." I felt bad for Edward, but the image of him grabbing a skunk in his preoccupation of getting even with Alice was hilarious. It certainly brightened my day, which I needed badly, given my current situation. After we finished laughing about Edward's misfortune, we started talking about my defense, and what we would say during the actual trial.

Jasper was really quite good with all of the legal aspects, although I wasn't really surprised. The Cullens were good at everything. As Esme was offering her input, Alice's eyes suddenly glazed over.

When it was finished, she looked at me and said, "I had a vision they are going to get the evidence they need today, so by tomorrow your case should be on someone else's docket.

I smiled at all three Cullens and said, "I don't know what I would do without you."

Alice smiled knowingly, "unfortunately, I do."


	11. Threats

Chapter 14

After Alice, Esme, and Jasper left for the day, they took me back to my small cell. I picked up a book to read until I fell asleep (books were one of the improved conditions the Cullens had been able to procure for me). I couldn't believe how much my life had changed for the better over the last four days. The fact that Edward still loved me sent my mind reeling and my heart soaring, I was happier than I had been in years. Now if only I could get out of here, life would be perfect. Well, as perfect as it could be with my husband's death on my conscience and the reawakening of my desire to be a vampire.

I hadn't brought it up again because I figured we should deal with one problem at a time. However, I absolutely refused to continue to grow old while Edward did not. I wondered if his five years of self imposed exile from me had changed his mind any. I hoped so; otherwise I would have to go about it differently, maybe by taking a vote from his family. I pushed my thoughts of being a vampire out of my mind and tried to concentrate on the problem at hand, my trial.

I didn't know what other tricks Henry senior might have up his sleeve. Another problem I had was that I didn't know which people Henry senior owned, so anyone in the justice system was a potential enemy. Edward's mind reading would help a lot with that, but it was a dangerous game the Cullens were playing. I was especially worried they would end up on tv, and countless people would recognize them as a family from their town who had strangely never aged since they moved.

Finally, I put my book down in a gesture of defeat. There was no way I was going to get any reading done tonight with my mind running at a mile a minute. Edward and the others would be an hour later than usual tomorrow since nine o'clock was visiting hours. Not that I would have any visitors. I had purposefully not called Charlie or Renee about my current predicament. They wouldn't have been much help anyway, and Renee would have probably made things worse. Then once the Cullens got here, I couldn't risk my parents, especially Charlie, noticing how they looked exactly the same from eight years ago when they first moved into Forks. Stupid timeless vampires.

Finally, after several hours of restless stewing I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up I realized that the Cullens wouldn't be coming for several more hours. We had decided it might look suspicious if they came to visit me during visiting hours and then met with me to 'discuss my case' afterwards. Not that we actually discussed it much, but it made a good cover to spend as much time with the Cullens as possible. Otherwise they would just be limited to visiting hours once a week.

At nine o'clock, I was very surprised when someone came to retrieve me for visiting hours. I wondered who on earth could have possibly come to see me. Then it dawned on me. One or both of my parents had seen me on television and had flown out. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend the next hour reassuring Renee, so I sincerely hoped it was only Charlie.

When they sat me down, I was shocked to see a face I hadn't expected through the glass, my father-in-law. I hesitantly picked up the phone that connected me to his voice. He was an older man, although I couldn't remember his exact age I knew he was in his sixties. He had a full head of gray hair and dark piercing eyes. When I had been around him with Henry junior, I had never been entirely comfortable. Now he was positively terrifying.

I tried to get a hold of my emotions, reminding myself that there was no way he could possibly be scarier than a vampire. I wasn't very convincing. He smiled, but rather than being reassuring he looked menacing. I tried to summon my wits to return his cool smile.

"Hello Henry," I said in a falsely cordial tone. I would let him say whatever it was he needed to tell me so he would leave as soon as possible.

"Hello Isabella," he said in a voice that would freeze lava. "How are you enjoying your stay?"

"Just fine," I said in a falsely bright voice. I was trying desperately not to let him intimidate me but I was quickly losing the battle.

"Great. So I suppose you are probably wondering why I am here?" I nodded, not trusting my voice. He reached under the counter and held up a newspaper to the glass.

On the front page was a headline proclaiming, "Well Respected Judge Suspended Indefinitely". Underneath the article were several pictures, one of Whiting taking an envelope from a man I didn't recognize. I moved on to the next picture and couldn't help but let out a disgusted noise. It was of Judge Whiting in his office engaged in…lets just say it was gross. I sincerely hoped Edward hadn't been the one to take that picture. What was even more amazing was that the photographer had captured the moment without showing any nudity, or even the girl's face. Although it was obvious from her long dark hair that she was not his wife.

"That's disgusting," I commented. "Isn't that your friend Judge Whiting?" The senator slammed the paper down on the counter in front of him and glared malevolently up through is eyelashes at me. The look reminded me of the look Henry and James had both given me before they tried to kill me. Surely he wouldn't try to kill me in public would he?

"I know who it is," he growled quietly so as not to attract attention. "I don't suppose you and your new lawyer had anything to do with this article did you?"

"Of course not!" My eyes widened trying to make myself appear innocent and truthful. I still wasn't a very good liar.

"I see," he hissed. His eyes flared and he dropped his tone to an angry whisper. The way he was shaking with rage reminded me of how Jacob used to behave before he burst into a werewolf. "I always win Isabella. You should know that. I even got my idiot son through law school, and believe me, that was no easy feat. Regardless, he may have been an idiot, but I loved him. You took that away from me. Enjoy these next few weeks, I promise you they will be your last."

Without another word he hung up the phone forcefully, got up, and strode out of the room. I leaned back in shock. No wonder Henry was insane. It was genetic. I was having a difficult time comprehending the fact that a United States senator had just possibly given me a death threat.

There was possibly something to this danger magnet thing. I was pretty sure this didn't happen to normal people. Before I knew it, it was time to go down to the conference room to meet with Edward and Jasper. I was still in a daze as I was led into the room. Jasper was recoiled against the wall and Edward ran to me and took my shoulders.

"Bella, tell me what's wrong!" He pleaded with desperation.

AN: I won't update until probably Monday, maybe sunday if I can swing it. I'm off to visit a magical place this weekend with no internet service. (AKA my parent's house.) As always, your reviews are great, thank you so much! 


	12. Edward's Plan

Chapter 15

Edward's point of view

I hurried Jasper out the door, excited at the prospect of seeing Bella again. Although I was proud at the job Emmett and I had done yesterday, I was also sorely missing her. I had to wait an extra hour, since it was weekly visiting hours and we thought it might be suspicious if we turned up for those and then went directly in afterwards to meet with her. Jasper had silently added a thought that I probably wouldn't take talking to Bella behind the glass well. Unfortunately, he had a point.

We got there right after visiting hours ended and we waited in the small meeting room for Bella. It was just Jasper and I for the moment, Carlisle had promised to show up later in the day to check Bella's injuries.

Jasper suddenly tensed up and I read through his thoughts that someone in quite a bit of emotional turmoil was nearby. He was having trouble blocking it out, and it was playing havoc with his power. I quietly reassured him that they were probably just walking past and the feelings would fade soon.

Then, the source of the turmoil walked in. It was Bella. Jasper recoiled against the wall, struggling to send out calming waves to ease her anger, fright, and distress. Panic seized my mind, and while I tried to calm myself for Jasper's sake I raced to Bella. I grabbed her by the shoulders crying frantically, "Bella, tell me what's wrong!"

Then to my dismay, she fainted. I cast a furtive glance towards the windowed door; no one had seen Bella yet. I picked her up and brought her to the table, simultaneously reading Jasper's mind. Apparently, he had overdone it on the calming waves. He quickly tried to reverse her unconscious state and she slowly opened her eyes. Fortunately for Jasper, she was not quiet as upset anymore.

"What happened?" She asked meekly.

"Jasper felt the emotions coming off you, and they were panicking him, so he sent out calming waves. Unfortunately, he misjudged the intensity and knocked you out. What is wrong Bella, please tell me?" She looked from me to Jasper.

"Umm...I will tell you. But first I'd like you to go sit next to Jasper." She bit her lip nervously. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her.

"And why would I do that?" I demanded.

"Please?" She looked up at me, pleading with her brown eyes. I couldn't deny her anything; I sighed and reluctantly walked around the table and sat down.

She proceeded to tell us about Senator Brandon's visit. When she got to the end of her story I could barely control myself. The man had threatened Bella, and I was going to make him pay. It wouldn't be that hard to find out where he lived...I could make it look like an accident so there was no negative repercussions. I began thinking of all of the possible ways I could do it. One thing I knew for certain, I was going to kill Henry Brandon Senior.

"Don't worry about him Bella," I said as I stood up, "he won't be a problem for much longer." I was blinded with rage, and the only thoughts going through my mind were of how I was going to destroy the man who had threatened her.

I felt a hand on my arm and I jerked away from it. Then, for one moment as I stalked for the door I felt the rage dissipate enough that I let go of the door I had been about to rip off it's hinges. I hesitated, and Jasper used that opportunity to grab me and concentrate feelings of tranquility into my mind.

Oh, dear god, what had I been about to do?

Jasper had managed to lead me back to the table and I sank slowly into a chair. I was too ashamed to look and see Bella's reaction to my shameful display. I put my head in my hands slowly massaging my temples thinking. I couldn't allow this vile man to continue threatening Bella, but I refused to just kill him. Now that my inner monster was under control, I could resist the urge.

I felt another hand on my arm, this time it was soft and warm.

"Edward?" Her soft voice questioned. "Edward, that's why I had to you sit by Jasper. I...I don't want you to be upset about this; there isn't anything he can do to me while I'm in here. Please look at me Edward." I put my hands down on the table and slowly met her gaze. There was no fear or revulsion there, only love and concern. She continually amazed me. I took her in my arms and held her to me gently.

"I apologize; I was completely out of line. Can you forgive me?" I murmured into her hair. She pulled back and put her hand on my cheek.

"There is nothing to forgive." The way she said it had a ring of finality to it. I decided not to push her. I then had a flash of inspiration. If Emmett and I could follow one lowlife around, we could do it to another. I seriously doubted that congressmen Brandon could carry out his threat if he was behind bars. I quickly explained my plan to Jasper and Bella. Bella looked thoughtful. Jasper started laughing.

"Do you have any idea how excited Emmett is going to be?" Jasper laughed. "If you thought his first spy kit was bad, just imagine what it's going to be like if he has more preparation time. You do realize he had a James Bond marathon last night?" This was true. But if it helped my Bella, then it was worth it. I could attempt to leave Emmett behind, but there was no way he would allow it.

Bella laughed at Jasper's comment, clearly picturing Emmett's exploits from our last covert operation. I was still furious at Alice for telling her about it.

"I think that's a really good idea Edward," she said as she wiped tears of mirth from her eyes. "Does this mean I won't see you for a while?" I nodded regretfully. "Then we'd better make today count."

And we did.

At the end of the day, I told Bella not to worry about anything. She simply smiled and said, "I never do when I know you're protecting me." Reluctantly, Jasper and I left. I was dreading Emmett's reaction when I told him what we would be doing for the next couple days. I also dreaded his reaction when I would tell him the reason why we would be doing it. He was almost as protective of Bella as I.

As we neared our rooms, I detected Emmett's thoughts. They were preoccupied with...spy activities. I should have known Alice had seen my plan. I was secretly glad I had probably missed Emmett's reaction to Bella being threatened.

I walked into the room and Emmett jumped up. "Hey brother, I got us some new things for tonight!" That was an understatement. Every surface in the room was covered by strange looking equipment.

"Emmett, do I even want to know what half of this stuff is?" I picked up the first thing my hand came upon. It was a small device that said 'Spy ear, hear for miles around!' I waved it at him. "You do realize that as vampires we hear ten times better than this machine?"

Emmett's face scrunched up in thought. "Oh yeah…well, I guess we can leave those at home then."

"We're leaving more than that at home. We don't need all this stuff Emmett." I went through all of the things he had bought and only let him bring what might be truly useful. Mainly, they were cameras and recording devices. I was going to kill Alice. I couldn't even get revenge on her because she saw it coming.

Luckily, Emmett had actually done something useful with the rest of his day; he had gotten the congressmen's address. I had forgotten to ask Bella for it. We took off for his house.

I had expected an upscale suburban neighborhood, with a nice manicured yard and white fence. I had seriously underestimated Henry senior's wealth. It was huge, and was surrounded by a wall with security cameras. Emmett and I parked several blocks away and we scaled the wall behind the camera.

We dropped to the ground and lights flashed on. We quickly climbed back up the wall and dropped back over. Several minutes later we observed several police cars pulling up to the gate. They stayed for half an hour and left. Just our luck, the guy was so paranoid he had motion detectors. Emmett and I could easily avoid the wall and cameras, and probably the guy's indoor alarm system. We could not however, fool a motion detector. I wasn't close enough to hear his thoughts, and we were unlikely to be able to get close enough anytime soon. We were stuck.

I sat down trying to think of a new plan. I was interrupted by Emmett.

"I have a great idea!" Emmett suddenly exclaimed. I flashed a glance at his face. Unfortunately, I could no longer dismiss this statement out of hand. "Let's go get Rosalie!" he continued excitedly, "I bet she can figure out how to shut off the detectors." Wow, Emmett had two great ideas in a row; I didn't know what to think. I agreed and we drove back to the hotel to ask her for help. Emmett burst into the room excitedly.

"Rose! We need your help!" He explained our problem to her and she sat back passively filing her nails as she listened.

"And why would you think I would be able to shut them off?" She asked when he finished.

"Because you're good at that kind of stuff. Please Rose, do it for me?" He nuzzled her ear trying his best to convince her. An explicit image of Emmett shot through her mind, and then returned to his request. Without warning she started laughing uncontrollably.

"I'm good with mechanics Emmett, not electronics," she finally explained. Why hadn't I thought of that? I was embarrassed I had gone along with Emmett's plan without considering it thoroughly. Now I knew exactly what to think. Emmett was still a moron, and he only occasionally had ideas that weren't completely idiotic.

"Why don't you just sneak in through the gates whenever a car goes in? Any motion would be attributed to the car," she suggested to her crestfallen husband. He visibly perked up.

"That's a great idea Rose!" He kissed her and spun her around happily. He then grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. I saw a flash of Rosalie's smug face as we exited. Now Rosalie had suggested something fairly intelligent. The world as we know it must be coming to an end. Emmett jumped into the car and started pulling away from the curb before I was completly inside. Excited Emmett was almost more than I could stand. I thought of Bella. I could stand anything for her.


	13. Rosalie's apology and redemption

Chapter 16

The next few days were not very pleasant. I was nervous and jumpy, and sorely missing Edward. Alice and Jasper came to see me everyday, and alternate family members would accompany them occasionally. Alice kept a close eye on my future trying to anticipate any move Henry might make. Jasper was busy planning for my hearing. He was frustrated, because my case was obviously one of self defense. He would have a hard time convincing the court of it though due to all of the negative press I had been receiving.

In the interest of a fair trial, he had tried to get it moved to a different state (one where my beloved father-in-law had little influence). Unfortunately, that possibility had been blocked as well. As the hearing grew closer, Jasper grew more frustrated. In the end, I think he had resolved to just use his power to influence the jury. It wasn't exactly fair play, but we were out of options.

The thing that upset Jasper the most was our abundance of evidence. We had tons of documentation of the extent of my injuries, a police report which clearly stated I was trying to remove myself from the situation, and even an old girlfriend of late husband's who was willing to testify to his violent drunken nature. This shouldn't get past a hearing. Alice's visions however, told her otherwise.

No matter what decisions we made, and what we planned to do, it had no effect on the outcome. Our biggest hope right now was that Edward and Emmett would manage to remove the congressman from the picture beforehand. I hoped for this sooner rather than later, because I missed Edward terribly. Emmett could come and go, but since Edward had the extra talent of mind reading, he was afraid to stop tailing Henry for fear of missing something important. The man was surprisingly sneaky.

Two days before my hearing, I entered the room that I had been regularly spending all of my days in. Alice and Jasper were there as usual, but the third person seated at the end of the table floored me. It was Rosalie. Alice and Jasper were grinning ear to ear, and Alice was in danger of bouncing out of her seat. Rosalie stood up gracefully and approached me.

She then did the last thing I had expected from her in a million years. She put her arms around me and hugged me very gently. I stiffened from shock before I was able to compose myself enough to return the hug. I wondered if Rosalie had been possessed. If there were vampires and werewolves, who was to say there was no such thing as demonic spirits who possessed people (or vampires)? It would make sense that the demon was nicer than Rosalie.

She stepped back from me and smiled at me…affectionately? Now was I was really confused.

"Bella," she began, "I've been horrible towards you, and I feel terribly about it. I thought you would destroy our family and for that I hated you. However, when we left, our family fell apart, and it was never the same again. Now that Edward has you back, our family has gone back to better than normal and for that I am profoundly grateful. I understand if you don't want to forgive me, but I still feel terribly about the way I treated you. So I guess what I'm really trying to say is, I'm sorry."

My mouth dropped open. Rosalie had just humbled herself enough to apologize to _me._ If she wanted to be friends, I was more than willing, but part of me was still considering the 'possessed by a demon' idea. On the off chance it really was Rosalie, I thought I'd better say something back to her.

"It's okay Rosalie; I know you just wanted to protect your family. Friends?" I asked as I stuck my hand out to her. She smiled and took it.

"Friends."

"Great!" Shouted Alice. "Now we need to get down to business. I've had another vision Bella." I nodded, encouraging her to continue. "It wasn't a pleasant one; I keep seeing you in the hospital vomiting and unable to move. We don't know what this means, but I'm betting it has something to do with Congressmen Brandon."

I stared at her. How could she still be so excited and perky if she kept seeing me possibly die?

"Oh!" She exclaimed seeing the look on my face, "but don't worry, as soon as we decided to leave Rosalie here I stopped having that vision."

"How are you going to leave Rosalie here?" I asked looking back and forth from Rosalie to Alice. "It's not exactly as if I'm allowed to have a slumber party at the jail."

"Don't worry about that silly, we've got it all taken care of! That's why we decided to leave Rose rather than me or Esme; if she gets caught she can just flirt her way out. Which she won't get caught, so it's not even an issue." Alice looked very pleased with herself. I just felt dizzy. Alice had been talking incredibly fast and my brain was still trying to catch up.

"Okay then," I said.

"Okay!"

* * *

Later on that evening I was awkwardly sitting in my cell with Rose. Just because we had agreed to be friends didn't mean we had anything in common to talk about. She was amazing though, she had slipped into my cell unnoticed, and every time someone came by she disappeared. I wasn't sure where she disappeared to, considering we were in a small open room, but I didn't dare look around for her.

I wondered exactly what she was protecting me from; it wasn't as if Henry could just waltz in during the night and shoot me. That would be too obvious. Finally, later on in the evening a guard brought me my dinner. I was starving, having forgotten about lunch today. When he left, I sat down to eat was joined by Rose. She sat next to me and wrinkled her nose.

"That can't actually be good can it? It smells worse than normal human food."

"It's not that bad," I said as a poked it with a fork, "It's just canned beans and some sort of beef." I raised my fork to but a bite in my mouth.

"Wait!" Cried Rosalie. My fork stopped midway to my mouth.

"What?" She had better have a good reason for making me stop, I was starving.

"Something isn't right about that food..." She trailed off thinking. I put my fork down.

"He wouldn't try to poison me would he?" That would be too obvious. Rose snapped her fingers.

"He would! I know what's wrong with that food, it smells like botulism. I remember from a guy in medical school."

"Do you think Henry did this?" It seemed like something he would do. A suspicious botulism poisoning, couldn't prove a thing.

"I don't know," Rose said thoughtfully. "I know it can occur occasionally, kind of like a freak accident with canned food. That would explain Alice's vision, vomiting and paralysis are two of the symptoms."

Now I almost wish I had let Emmett kill Congressmen Henry Brandon. The jerk had tried to poison me.

AN: Guess what? I'm visiting a new magical place where Internet service may or may not be available. I only found out today that I'm leaving for Huston tomorrow. Sooo...I will try to post tomorrow, but if I don't get a chance I won't be able to post until next tuesday. For all your nice reviews I'll make a chapter worth waiting for though!


	14. It's Cullen  Emmett Cullen

Chapter 17

Edward was furious when he found out about the attempt to poison me. Alice told me later that they had to switch hotels because of how badly he damaged the one they were staying in. The next day he stomped down to the jail still in a rage from the night before. He argued with Alice for over two hours, saying that I could have been killed, and it was time to just remove me from jail and forget trying to play games with the legal system. In the end, Alice (with the help of Jasper's powers) calmed him down enough to convince him that wasn't the best idea.

After he calmed down, I got to spend a little time with him before he returned to tail Henry senior. He was very hard on himself; he couldn't understand why he hadn't read Henry's intentions in his mind. I suspected it was because Henry wouldn't dirty his own hands with my death, no need when he had hundreds of people eager to do it for him. Politics make me sick.

Whoever had tried to give me botulism was really quite clever. Botulism can be found in canned food occasionally, and it more often than not kills whoever is unfortunate enough to ingest it. Even if Rose had stopped me from eating it, I found myself more paranoid than ever. I was terrified to eat anything given to me, especially since we couldn't even tell anyone what we had found in my food. How do you explain to someone that you knew your food was tainted with botulism because a vampire with super smelling powers told you so?

I was so nervous about the next attempt on my life, I couldn't even focus on the hearing plans Jasper was trying to go over with me.

"Now, whenever we present a piece of evidence, I'm going to blast the emotion of belief to the judge. Whenever the prosecution presents their evidence I'll project uncertainty and disbelief. Alice isn't getting anything on how this hearing is going to go anymore, so we're just going to have to go blind. Now let's go over what you're going to say."

"What?" I was startled back into reality. I had only been half listening to Jasper.

"What are you going to say tomorrow in the hearing?" He repeated patiently. I recited my story back to him he nodded approvingly. As if I didn't have enough to worry about, now I had to memorize lines.

* * *

The next day Alice showed up again bright and early to make me presentable. We arrived at the courthouse a little early, so we took a seat on the bench in the hall. I was still handcuffed, but they had left me alone with Jasper and Alice for the moment. If by alone you mean standing on the opposite side of the hallway staring at me. I leaned my head back against the wall and shut my eyes. This was sure to be just another ordeal in a long line of others. Alice suddenly elbowed me in the ribs. 

"Sit up, there's something coming that you're going to want to see," she winked at me, so I sat up wondering what could possibly be interesting in the courthouse. As I looked down the hall, I saw the last person I wanted to see walking down it. Henry senior walked briskly past me, and gave me a look that could melt rock. Suddenly his eyes widened and he looked terrified. What in the…?

I looked at Jasper, and he winked at me. Served Henry right, he deserved to be blasted with fear.

"Keep watching," whispered Alice. I looked back down the hall and saw something else I hadn't expected. Edward was dressed impeccably in a suit and he was also walking briskly down the hall. His eyes cut to me and he winked. I loved him so much it almost hurt. Jasper looked at me and smiled. I looked back down the hall, and did a double take. Here came Emmett.

He was dressed all in black and was wearing large sunglasses that covered his face. He was also dashing down the hall, hiding behind plants and benches. As he got closer, I heard something that almost made me choke on my own laughter. Emmett was whistling the James Bond theme to himself as he ducked and rolled down the hall. He already had a large audience that was following him at a discreet distance. They probably thought he was schizophrenic or something. Hell, I almost thought he was, and I knew him. I watched for several minutes until he dashed around the corner. The crowd of people followed him.

"Just wait, it's not over," Alice whispered in my ear. I looked at her in surprise, what more could there possibly be? I seriously hoped Carlisle wasn't going to come around the corner carrying a bush to hide behind. That thought made me laugh.

"Three…two…one…" Alice said to herself. Then Emmett came sprinting around the corner pumping his arms as he ran. Two policemen chased behind him yelling for him to stop. I dissolved into giggles, this was just too much. I seriously hoped no one recognized Emmett from my arraignment. I didn't want to have to lie about my relationship with a mentally unhinged body builder vampire who was playing spy in the hallways of the courthouse.

Who has these types of dilemmas, honestly? I was pretty sure I was the only one in the world who had these types of situations. I looked over at Alice to ask her a question, and was met by her glassy eyed stare. She was having a vision. She snapped out of, and looked at Jasper.

"Something changed. This is proceeding to trial." I had kind of expected it, but a small part had hoped for a miracle. Henry senior brushed by again, heading towards the exit. Suddenly, I knew what had changed. I just hoped Edward had gotten proof of it.

Henry had bribed the judge, that had to be it. It was too much of a coincidence to be otherwise.

"Oh well," Jasper sighed, "I had expected as much. At least we got to see Emmett's distraction, that was worth the trip."

"You _planned _that?" I asked in shocked.

"Well, yeah of course," Jasper replied wrinkling his brow. "You didn't honestly think Emmett was dumb enough to do that for no reason did you?" Well, actually I had. Oops.

"Of course not," I quickly assured Jasper. I wasn't sure why I bother lying to him, since he could detect it without a problem. He just smiled at me and laughed.

* * *

The hearing did not go well. Every time we brought forth a new piece of evidence, the judge merely scoffed, and all but ignored it. I wondered how much Henry had paid him, quite a bit apparently. 

At the end of the day, I was sent back to my jail cell. I wasn't surprised. My trial date was set to begin in two weeks. In that time Jasper was going to be very busy helping select Jury members and preparing my defense. I wondered how the Cullens had gotten my trial to start so soon, with all the court cases you saw on tv it took months for the trial to start. I asked Jasper, and he laughed saying I watched too much tv.

Edward unfortunately, was unable to prove the judge had been bribed. He couldn't get close enough to record the conversation, and he wasn't able to get into the office where the discussion took place. He had finally gleaned one piece of useful information. He had discovered who exactly Henry had hired to kill me. It was a man named Christopher Johnson. Edward decided he would tail him and relinquish Henry senior over to Emmett. Emmett was better at sneaky recording and picture taking, and Edward wanted to make sure he was there to stop any plan that Christopher may have to kill me.

It was too bad that we didn't realize that Christopher wasn't the only person Henry had hired to kill me.

AN: I decided to post this chapter before I left for Huston in celebration. Celebration of what you ask? Well, this is in Celebration of 10,723 hits and 145 reviews! You guys are so awesome you deserve another chapter before I leave. Who needs to pack clothes anyways? Of course I'll have to walk around Huston naked…I'm sure **that** will go over great. Not. Anyways, give yourselves a pat on the back, and I'll post a new chapter as soon as I possibly can!


	15. Bella's Narrow Escape

Chapter 18

Edward sent word twice more that week not to eat my prison food. Luckily, each time he did he sent Alice or Rosalie with something else to eat. Without exception, that food was of far better quality than whatever it was I would have been eating. So there wasn't much to complain about, except for the fact someone was trying to kill me.

Emmett apparently had been making some progress on his quest to get 'the dirt' (Emmett's words, not mine) on Henry. It seemed to be a difficult task, even for vampires. Jasper worked tirelessly on my defense while Alice came and kept me company pretty much every day. Carlisle came by occasionally to see how I was healing, and to make small talk. Esme and Rosalie also visited frequently just to keep me company. Esme constantly worried whether I was being taken care of right, and Rosalie would come and tell me funny stories about the family. Apparently when you have decades upon decades with nothing to do, you do some pretty ridiculous stuff to entertain yourself.

About a week after my hearing (and three attempted poisonings) I was feeling pretty confident in my safety. There was no way Henry's guy would get anything past Edward, and even if he decided to change tactics, Edward would let us know in advance.

I was getting ready for the Cullen's visit as usual. Showering in jail was far from one of my favorite activities, so I tried to make it a quick event. I was washing my hair with my eyes closed so as not to get soap in them. I thought I heard a noise so I tried to rinse the soap off my face to look around.

Without warning, I felt a pair of hands push me hard. I've never had the greatest sense of balance, so I immediately toppled over and smacked the back of my head against the shower wall. It hurt like hell, and my eyes reflexively snapped opened despite the soap. The female guard who supervised showers stood there staring down at me. She saw my eyes open and she inhaled in shock. She moved threateningly towards me and reached toward my head.

I kicked out towards her and slid a few feet away on the slippery floor. Then I let out a bloodcurdling cry for help. Almost instantly, two guards appeared at the door.

"She's trying to kill me!" I screamed at them. The fact that I was naked and bleeding on the shower floor was my last concern. That meant I had plenty of time later to be embarrassed and alive. The guard looked at me, looked at the other guards, and bolted.

I quickly stood up and wrapped a towel around myself as one guard took off in pursuit of the one who had tried to kill me. The second guard stayed to make sure I was alright, and after a cursory look at my head, she decided I needed to visit the hospital to have it dealt with properly. As I quickly clothed myself before being taken to the hospital, I wondered why the guard had run. If she had stayed she could have played me off as having been confused due to a shower fall. The only thing I could think of was that the last thing she expected was to be interrupted, and she had panicked. Why hadn't she made a contingency plan though? Surely she couldn't have expected to have been left alone for that long, could she have?

Chapter 19

Alice's point of view

I was getting ready with Jazz to go visit Bella when I had a vision. It was of the pretty blond guard pushing Bella into the shower wall and making Bella hit her head. Blood flowed from her head creating a red halo. Then the guard walked towards Bella to grab her head...

I panicked, running out of the hotel room without another word to my family. I had to stop this, Bella was too important to all of us to loose. If I had to I would rip apart the jail and break her out myself. I jumped into the car and sped away from the curb. As I drove wildly through the traffic I though of possible ways to handle this.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I didn't have to intervene personally, all I had to do was make sure someone else found them in time. I raced into the jail and I skidded to a stop in front of the check in desk. The guy sitting there was the same one who had been greeting my family and I every day, so he smiled at me and asked how I was. Being in no mood for pleasantries, I told him,

"There has been a family emergency and I need to speak with Bella _now,_" I stressed the word. He looked at me and hesitated.

"It's not quite time for you to go in yet, if you want you can wait right over there," he gestured towards a row of yellow plastic chairs against the opposite wall. I knew I couldn't blame him, he was only doing his job, but I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. Losing my temper would not help Bella.

"Please," I said leaning in close, "There is a family emergency Bella really needs to know about." I slipped him several large bills. He looked unsure. "She should be in the shower, just send a couple of people over there, I'll be willing to pay them and you, very well." He hesitated and finally nodded. I breathed in relief as he called someone on his radio asking them to get Bella from the shower and bring her into the room a little early. I handed him a stack of bills.

"Thank you so much. I promise you won't regret it." I only hoped I had been in time.

AN: Guess what? My magical place in Houston has internet, yay! I won't update as much, but you'll still get something at least! Of course Harry Potter comes out tomorrow and I'll be terribly distracted for a little while. Anyways, thanks so much for the reviews, the fact you enjoy my story makes my day!


	16. Rose vs Henry

Chapter 20

Edward was furious. Naturally. That wasn't what was concerning me though. What I found troubling was the fact that none of the Cullens could find him. He had arrived at the jail seconds after Alice had bribed the guard to come get me. After he had burst into the room where my head was being treated and had stayed only long enough to make sure I was really okay. He grabbed my hand and told me that he would take care of everything.

Alice had been reluctant to follow him and leave me alone, she was afraid that I wasn't safe. Unfortunately, I wasn't very far from agreeing with her. Someone had tried to off me in broad daylight in the middle of a prison. I might not be safe on my own. There was someone who was in worse danger than I however. Congressman Brandon had a murderously angry vampire after him. I wasn't sure what Edward would do to him, but I couldn't help but think of what had happened to the last being who had tried to kill me when Edward was near.

Alice called Emmett and changed his job from spying on Henry to protecting him. This was purely for Edward's benefit, she was all for quietly killing Henry. But, we didn't want Edward to do anything he would regret later. He didn't need any new excuses for self loathing and masochism. After hanging up with Emmett, Alice called Carlisle and asked him to look for Edward. If he would listen to anyone it would be his father and mentor.

As worried as I was about Edward, I was also worried for myself. If Henry could come that close to having me killed inside the prison in broad daylight, I had no doubts he could do it in the darkness when there would be no one around to protect me. I needed to get out.

I fully intended on becoming a vampire now, Edward couldn't stop me. The moment he told me the truth about why he had left he had sealed my fate. He could not live without me, and I could not live without him. His family had been torn apart without him, and I would not let it happen again.

I didn't think his family would allow it either. When I was a vampire, I would no longer be attached to the petty human rules that kept me here now. I of course, wouldn't tell Edward my rational until after he had broken me out. Alice gasped and I jerked from my reverie.

"Bella?" Crap. I had forgotten she was likely to see what I was planning beforehand. This wasn't a problem except for the fact she didn't have the benefit of having her thoughts Edward-free.

"That's not a great idea Bella. Not that way anyways. We need to think of something else. If we turn you into a vampire now, there will be so much publicity about your escape it will be years before we can settle down again. It's hard to keep a low profile with a fugitive in the family." Double crap. I didn't think about that.

"Okay...fine. Nix that idea. Do you have a better one?" Alice smiled.

"As a matter of fact," she grinned, "I do."

Alice's plan was actually very good. When it came time for Alice to leave for the day, she let Rosalie in as she left. Rosalie got into my cell in the same mysterious manner she had used previously. Secretly, I was relieved that she was there, I doubted the one female guard was the only one Henry had hired. The fact that she hadn't been expecting anyone else to be around confirmed that theory in my mind.

Rosalie, bless her heart, had brought me food. Decent food, and a lot of it. Fresh vegetables and fruit were something I'd sorely missed, and I spoke only briefly between bites. Rosalie watched me, amused at my eating habits. When I'd finished, we had a very good conversation about psychology. I never would have guessed she was interested in the subject, and she had some very interesting opinions on it.

In the middle of our conversation, Rosalie suddenly stopped talking about the idiocy of Freud and froze.

"Climb into bed," she hissed. I ran for the bunk and jumped under the covers. I concentrated on breathing steadily. I thought I heard skittering, but I wasn't sure. I breathed louder. After a couple of indeterminate minutes, I heard Rosalie's voice coming from the darkness.

"Don't get out of bed. Plug your ears Bella." I did and I hummed to myself. Something in Rosalie's voice made me obey without question. A minute or two went by and I felt an ice cold hand on my shoulder. I unplugged my ears and opened my eyes. Rosalie was standing over me looking concerned.

"You weren't listening were you Bella?"

"No, you asked me not to," I whispered back.

"Good." Rosalie smiled and sat down. "I think you maybe should go to sleep now." Something in Rosalie's tone made me agree quickly. I defiantly didn't want to know what all that had been about.

Rosalie's Point of View

I had been enjoying myself more than I had ever thought possible with Bella. She was fun and interesting to talk to. After about an hour of conversation, I heard a guard clomping down the hall, probably doing night rounds. I told Bella she should get into bed and she ran and dived under the covers. I quickly jumped up and hung from the ceiling of the cell. No one would think to look up, and I would still have an excellent view of Bella.

A middle aged chubby guard stopped in front of Bella's cell and took a bag from her shoulder. She unzipped the bag and lowered it to the floor. Hundreds of cockroaches poured onto the floor. She then ran quickly down the hall. Apparently, she didn't like cockroaches. I called out to Bella to stay still and plug her ears.

The cockroaches wouldn't hurt her, but they were designed to psychologically torment her. I wasn't about to let that happen. I Ran around the cell at vampire speed seeking out the disgusting little pests. It only took me a couple of minutes to kill what I thought to be all of them. I then gathered the bodies and flung them down the hall as far from Bella's cell as possible. I laughed at the imagined expression the guard would have when she realized that little Bella must have killed all of the bugs she had planted to torment her, and left them as a challenge in the most obvious place possible.

Two could play at this psychological war game, and only one could win. I knew the oldest and most experienced would be the victor. I almost felt sorry for the stupid little worm called Henry. That's a lie. I didn't feel sorry for him, I was excited at the chance to crush someone who so richly deserved it.


	17. Carlisle's Plan

Chapter 21

Edward's Point of View

I sat outside Congressmen Henry Brandon's window, seriously considering the situation. I would love nothing more than to kill him slowly and painfully, but by the time I had snuck my way past Emmett I had calmed down enough to rethink that plan. I wasn't a killer…well I was, but I wouldn't kill someone if I could help it, even if they deserve it.

I wondered what Brandon's reaction would be if I jumped through his window and threatened him. The thought of him screaming like a little girl thoroughly amused me. Probably not the best course of action I told myself. However, it was defiantly the funniest one. I doubted that trying to bribe him with money would help much either. He was well off enough that he could hire and bribe his only little army of sleazy members of the judicial system. That plan was out.

This left the question of what would work on Henry. The only thing I came up with was blackmail, which brought us back to our original plan. Emmett and I had gotten some fairly substantial evidence against him, and I wondered if it might be smarter of us to present Brandon with the evidence in exchange for his discontinued pursuit of Bella's death.

I didn't think killing Bella was worth exchanging his career to him. At least, I sincerely hoped that was the case. Something in Brandon's thoughts caught my attention then.

…_idiots. I paid lots of good money for that wing of the prison to be deserted, and they still couldn't do it. I can wait. It might be fun to play with her a little before she dies anyway. Of course, that's assuming that those idiots can even accomplish that much. She will die though. And before she does I'm going to make her suffer as much as possible._

My grip tightened on the branch in my hand. The most infuriating thing with this whole situation was that Brandon was good, very good at not leaving any physical evidence pointing to his involvement in dirty deeds. It wasn't like we could just walk up to the police and say, "Hi, please arrest this man, I heard him thinking about killing Bella."

And now, he was planning on causing her mental anguish as well as physical. I wanted to kill him so bad…my vision blurred and I unconsciously prepared to vault myself through the window.

I then felt a gentle restraining hand on my arm. I paused and turned around to see the kindly face of my foster father. I realized what I was doing and looked down shamefaced.

"It's okay, I understand," Carlisle said. I looked up and he was still smiling. "I am furious right now too. But we can't act rashly and do something we'll regret later."

"I know. I'd already decided killing him wasn't worth it. I was listening to his thoughts though and they just made me so mad I couldn't think straight, and…and…" I ran out of steam. I knew I didn't have to explain to Carlisle what I'd been about to do, he already knew.

"As it happens, I've had an interesting thought on how to get Bella out of this whole mess," Carlisle told me.

"What?" I asked eagerly. Carlisle just smiled and quietly told me his plan. He was good. He was _very_ good.

Chapter 22

Alice's point of view

I'd seen the whole cockroach episode but hadn't done anything because I figured Rosalie already had it under control. I was extra proud that Rose had handled it so well, without ever letting Bella know what was going on. She had finally realized what an asset to our family Bella was, and now that we had our happiness as a family back, she was willing to fight ferociously to protect it.

I quickly switched over and tried to see Edward. I saw him talking with Carlisle in a tree outside of Henry Brandon's house. Good, I was glad he had caught up with him in time. I wouldn't have lamented Brandon's demise, but Edward's remorse would have been unbearable, especially for Jasper.

As it was, Jasper and I had stolen a few moments to just be together sitting on the couch. He browsed through law books looking for who knows what. It isn't like he hadn't perfectly retained everything he had learned in law school, including every word he had ever read in every book. I didn't complain. I wanted to get Bella out of jail almost as much as Edward.

As I leaned against Jasper's shoulder, another vision rose unbidden in my mind. I saw Carlisle and Edward approaching different people and talking intently with each one of them. The glimpses I caught were more like snapshots and I couldn't quite piece together what they were talking about. I didn't recognize any of the people, except for one guard from the jail Bella was in.

I looked over at Jasper. He wasn't going to be moving from that spot until tomorrow morning I was sure. I decided it would be a good idea to go drop in on Carlisle and Edward. Maybe I could help with whatever they were doing.

* * *

As I crept closer to Congressmen Brandon's house, the first thing I smelled was Emmett. He was smoking a cigarette. I sighed, and wondered why on earth he would do that. I was betting it had something to do with his new spy persona. And the fact that we had left him unattended. Never a good plan.

I hopped the gate, ever since we had discovered that we could sneak through the gate after a car, we had also discovered the gate lacked a sophisticated motion detector on the top. As long as we kept to the road, the alarm stayed silent. I trotted up the road and sprang up onto the branch Edward and Carlisle were seated on.

"Hi!" I said cheerfully. Edward inhaled through his nose and turned his head.

"You know, sneaking up on people on a stakeout might not always be the best plan," he said nonchalantly. I knew he had been startled, and I smirked.

"I just thought maybe you two needed some company! And some help for your plan!" Carlisle smiled at me, always one to accept help readily. Edward just frowned.

"You mean you couldn't tell what we were up to and you were bored," he raised his eyebrows indicating that he could read in my thoughts exactly why I had come.

"Whatever, same difference. Either way, I'm here to help. So what's the plan?" Edward briefly summed it up for me and I smiled. It was simple, but effective. Carlisle was a devious, devious man. Vampire. Whatever.

After he was done, I suddenly had a flash of vision, but before I could tell everyone to jump off the branch Emmett leapt up beside me.

"So what did I miss?" He asked beaming. He was obviously pleased at having found us. Never mind Edward, Carlisle, and I had all snuck around him and Edward had been sitting there for hours. If he had wanted to kill Congressmen Brandon, he would have had plenty of time to do it, watch a movie, clean the house, and then burn down the house. Emmett never would have suspected a thing.

With a crack, the branch we were all sitting in collapsed and we all found ourselves on the lawn. Without another word, we jumped up and ran vampire speed out of Brandon's courtyard, carrying with us a suspicious branch with a hand shaped indent at the end.


	18. Close Call?

**I think it's time for another friendly neighborhood disclaimer. I don't own anything in my story, especially Twilight. The only thing I could possibly claim to own is Henry...and who wants him?**

* * *

Chapter 22

There was something strange going on. Alice and Edward refused to say anything on the subject, and Jasper was too wrapped up in legal proceedings for me to try to pump for information. Nevertheless, there _was_ something very strange going on.

My first clue had come yesterday, when I had been served food that far surpassed anything the prison had ever offered. The man who usually delivered my food also had something odd about him. He had a very shiny _expensive_ new watch. My second clue was when my visiting hours had suddenly been extended indefinitely. That is, they lasted until I was ready to go to bed, and began whenever I was ready in the morning.

I was pretty sure the Cullen's had bribed these people to improve my conditions, but I was at a loss as to why this had occurred all of a sudden. They had had weeks and weeks to do this, but they had chosen to wait until now. Why? Also, Edward had returned to visiting me everyday, although he didn't stay nearly as long as before.

I wasn't complaining, I was thoroughly enjoying my new improved diet and extended hours with the Cullens. I did want to know, however what they were up to. Even Esme was cryptic. Whenever I had asked her about it, all I had gotten was a smile and a "don't worry about it dear, we've got it all taken care of."

No one would even discuss the idea of breaking me out anymore. Apparently whatever they were up to was preferable over a prison break, except maybe in Emmett's eyes. Emmett was still the source of most of my entertainment; whenever he visited me he always did something outrageous. I suspected he acted that way mostly for my amusement and to keep my spirits up, but occasionally I wondered if perhaps he was serious.

For example, earlier Emmett had showed up to visit me for a while. Edward was off tailing Henry which freed up Emmett to visit me. He had entered the room wearing all black. This wasn't unusual for Emmett, lately he taken to always wearing all black. He sat down next to me and lit up a cigarette. I was very confused; I couldn't imagine that vampires would ever have any reason to smoke. I also seriously doubted he was aloud to smoke in the building either. Regardless, he smoked his cigarette and leaned back in his chair.

Later on in the day, he made me sit in the middle of the room so he could attempt to interrogate me. I tried to explain to him that he was posing as a lawyer, not a cop but he wouldn't have any of it. By the time Edward showed up to rescue me I had admitted to lots of things, the least of which included the brutal murder of disco. I was pretty sure Emmett was just trying to be funny, and he didn't actually believe himself to be an interrogator. At least I hoped so.

The most pleasant improvement came the next day. It was nearing the end of the day, and I was getting very sleepy. I said my goodbyes to the Cullens and gave Edward a discreet kiss on the cheek before they asked the woman outside my cell to take me back down.

When I returned to my cell I sat down on my cot as I brushed my hair. My mind wondered over all the things that were going on in my life. I mused at the happiness I had gained at having Edward and the rest of my family back. I would gladly trade the time in prison I was spending for that gift. Suddenly I felt cool arms encircle my waist and lips press to my ear. I gasped in surprise. If it wasn't who I thought it was, Rosalie and I were going to have to have a serious conversation. She was beautiful and all but...

I turned around and Edward grinned at me. I threw my arms around his neck and he laughed appreciatively.

"Hey," he whispered in my ear.

"Hey!" I said breathlessly. "Are you here to baby-sit me tonight?"

He grinned crookedly. "If you'd like me to." Of course I'd like him to, he knew that. I realized with a thrill that it would be the first time I'd had the opportunity to sleep in his arms for over five years. We still had a lot to talk about, and some issues to work through, but we both knew that we loved each other, and that was enough for now. We had something of an unspoken agreement not to talk about those things until the current crisis was over and done with. One problem at a time.

"Are you tired?" He asked peering at me through the darkness. Dim light from down the hall reflected in his eyes making them appear to glitter. I became painfully aware that this was the first moment we had been alone together in a very long time. He bent down and kissed me softly at first, and the more desperately. He still never crossed his boundries however, even with the desperation in his kiss.

I unfortunatly was not as controled. I lost all semblance of control and I melted into his body and unconsciously pulled him closer. Then, he was gone.

"I…I'm so sorry," I panted, feeling embarrassed. Of course I had pushed him too far, he wasn't nearly as resistant to my blood as he used to be.

"Shhh," I heard from the darkness. I stopped. Footsteps echoed coming closer and closer. I pulled the covers over me and positioned myself where I could still look at the hallway. It was too dark for anyone to tell if my eyes were closed. A silhouetted figure stopped outside my cell and paused. I could hear my heart beating wildly and I prayed for it to slow.

The figure stepped forward and I heard the key slide into the lock. Click. He was coming in! I kept repeating to myself that Edward was here, and I was safe. Whoever was coming in was no match for a vampire. Then why was I so scared?

I saw the figure walk into my cell and something glittered in his hand, just as Edward's eyes had several minutes ago. This time however, the object was intended to hurt me, I had no doubt. The intruder raised the knife, poised to strike. I inhaled, and then everything went black.

* * *

**I don't want to hear any whining about cliffhangers! If you're good, I'll update tomorrow :-)**


	19. Edward's Indecision

Chapter 23

Edward's point of view

I was hiding in the dark, waiting and listening to the man's thoughts for his intentions. He was here to murder Bella, I could see a knife glittering wickedly in his hand as he unlocked the door. Congressman Brandon was really getting desperate if he had stopped trying to make Bella's death look like an accident. Rage boiled inside me, for the thousandth time I wished to myself that I hadn't left Bella. If I hadn't, she never would have been put into this position.

I watched as the would-be murderer crept silently to the side of Bella's bed. I figured a well-placed blow to the head would be sufficient to disable him without permanently hurting him. Then I would have time to debate and decide what to do with him. I leaped from the shadows as he reached Bella's bed, and before I had a chance to raise my hand to hurt her his real intentions flashed through his head.

He was not here to kill Bella. The knife was to ensure her silence while he completed his task. He was here to violate Bella in the worst way imaginable, to take something by force from her that should only ever be given freely. I should have seen it coming, should have known the Congressman wouldn't be stupid enough to have her killed in such an obvious way. Disgust and a kind of anger I had never experienced before overtook me. I reached out to grab the intruder with my lighting fast reflexes. I was out of control, and the desire to kill had overridden all others.

The fact that I heard a crash of broken glass from down the hall meant nothing. The darkness that enveloped the cell meant nothing. The roar of the thoughts moving swiftly towards me meant nothing. I reached out to grab the man who meant to violate Bella, and my hand crushed his skull. The blood that pored from his head enveloped me, I hadn't been this close to human blood without drinking it in years. The monster within me smiled, why shouldn't I drink from this vile, evil human?

I moved forward to lap up the spilt blood when I was hit with a heavenly smell. Blood that would be much more satisfying than than the weak watery kind that I had before me. It was Bella. I stood still in indecision, my inner monster screaming for her blood, my rational side screaming for me to stop. I don't know which side would have won, because as I sat teetering on the edge of indecision my arms were grabbed from either side in vice like grips.

"It's okay guys, you can let him go," came Alice's quiet voice. She was standing at the door to the cell looking as frazzled as a vampire could. In her mind a vision of me running from the cell before I harmed Bella still lingered. In everyone else's mind hung uncertainty, and picture of Alice's panicked face flashed through Emmett's mind.

In his mind, I heard the echoes of her saying, "Someone is going to attack Bella, and I can't tell but Edward might loose control. We have to leave now and make sure that doesn't happen, my vision keeps going back and forth.

I was decidedly relieved that Alice's vision had told me I would have been strong enough to resist. Even still, the idea of 'maybe' would haunt me forever.

"Shit," said Carlisle. He was looking at the destroyed body lying on the floor. This was a problem. If we left it here, Bella would get blamed. If we took it elsewhere, we would have a lot of evidence to clean up here, and only Carlisle would have the self control to do it. As it was, there were three vampires standing around holding their breath. Not an ideal situation for Bella to be in.

Emmett voiced the question that was running through everyone's mind. "What are we going to do?" We had no idea. We had a body, a floor puddled with blood, and a human we needed to protect. Taking Bella away to Antarctica was sounding more and more appealing.

Bella's Point of view

Everything was dark. A crash and an echoing of broken glass come from down the hall. The light that had been slightly illuminating the cell must have been broken, but I wasn't sure how. I felt a breeze and suddenly the scuffling stopped. An indistinguishable whisper sounded from the front of the cell. It sounded feminine.

"Shit," a male voice echoed from the darkness. It took me a moment, but it finally dawned on me that the voice belonged to Carlisle. I never thought I would hear calm, cool, collected Carlisle say something like that. It terrified me. Something had to be badly wrong.

"What are we going to do?" Emmett's voice asked. The sick smell of rust and salt reached my nose and I blanched. I turned my head and did my best to breathe the fresh air that came from the vent above my bed.

"What happened?" I called out to the voices. Small arms were around my shoulders by the time I had finished my question.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked me quietly.

"Bella, are you alright?" Came Edward's slightly stressed voice.

"Why isn't anyone answering my questions?" My voice raised in frustration.

"Everyone stop asking questions!" Carlisle said firmly. "Bella, what happened was that the night guard was hired to come into your cell tonight and...well he was hired to come in. Alice had a vision of you getting hurt while Edward was fighting with him, so we showed up to help. Are you alright Bella?"

"Yes," I said weakly. I wondered how exactly Alice had seen me getting hurt.

"Good. In our haste to make sure that we stopped you from getting hurt we've accidentally killed the man. As for what we going to do about it, I'm not quite sure. I am open to suggestions however."

"How exactly did you see me as getting hurt Alice?" I asked in a small voice. It was almost incomprehensible to me that I wouldn't have been safe with my Edward protecting me.

"The vision changed at the last minute. You wouldn't have gotten hurt. We'll talk about it later," She shushed.

"No! Not later, now. I deserve to know Alice." I was getting very sick of being treated like a child, and I wanted to be privy to the same information everyone else was. It also occurred to me that Carlisle had deliberately shied away from saying that the man had broken in to kill me. Why?

When I voiced this an uncomfortable silence met me. Finally Alice assured me she would tell everything to me after they had come up with a plan. I gave in for the moment, but I was not giving up.


	20. Henry's surprise

Chapter 24

"Seriously, what are we going to do?" Asked Emmett again.

"I think we just cut our losses and run," Edward said quietly.

"I'm not sure that's wise," Carlisle replied. "That could bring up a whole new batch of problems for Bella."

"Then what are we going to do about the body and the puddle of blood in the middle of her cell?" Emmett demanded. "In case you've forgotten, she's already in here for killing one guy is self defense; we don't need to add another one. Plus, I don't know how we can explain this guy's manner of death. I don't think anyone would believe Bella crushed his skull."

"It doesn't matter!" Edward roared. "What matters is Bella's safety, and it is clearly not safe for her here! She could have been accosted in her bed for God's sake!" I heard Carlisle's breath sharply intake, and Emmett's quiet growl. So that's what Alice had been keeping from me. He hadn't been trying to stab me, merely keep me quiet. I felt nauseous and a little weak. I turned my head to say something. The smell of blood hit me full force then. It was so strong, and there was so much of it that I fell forward off my bed unconscious.

* * *

When I awoke, I had been moved into the hallway, away from the offending puddle. Edward had me in his arms and was peering anxiously over me. "Bella, are you alright?" I took a couple of seconds to clear my fuzzy head before replying. 

"Yes I think I'm fine, there was just too much blood…I couldn't handle it." He nodded understandingly. "What are you guys going to do with the body?"

"We haven't decided yet. I want to just leave it and get you as far away from here as possible. We figure we have several hours before anyone comes into this part of the prison; guards were probably bribed to stay away from this area."

"Actually," I began, "I think we have the whole night. That guy _was_ the guard, for this part of the prison anyways. The new one doesn't come on until seven o'clock. But I'm not so sure running away is the best idea either. You guys have already made the dangers of doing that perfectly clear."

"We'll work around it," Edward dismissed.

"I don't think that is wise," Carlisle repeated from the darkness of my cell. "But it is your decision Bella."

"What is your idea Carlisle?" I asked curiously.

"I think it would be more prudent to remove the body and dispose of it elsewhere, so as not to arouse more suspicion towards you. We can then clean up the blood, and they can find you in your cell, just as you should be. No one will suspect you had anything to do with the night guard's…sudden disappearance." Carlisle's plan seemed to be pretty good to me.

"I like that plan, what's wrong with it Edward?" I turned to Edward, waiting for an answer.

"I just don't like the idea of you being in any more danger," Edward said firmly.

"I won't be in any more danger," I replied, exaggerating the calm in my voice, "I'll be in the same amount of danger as always." Edward growled but didn't reply. "There should be a janitor's closet around here somewhere Carlisle. Once we get the blood off the floor, we can mop the rest of the hallway and rooms so the bleach smell won't seem out of place in my cell."

"That's a really good idea Bella. Are you sure this is what you want to do?" His voice was calm and serene, the tension now gone.

"Yes." The more I thought about it, the more I knew that was definitely NOT what I wanted to do. However, the alternative of just running away wasn't practical, as much as I wanted to do it.

"Alright then. Emmett, you and Alice take to body and get rid of it. Edward and I will clean up the blood." Emmett agreed and left down the hallway they had come from. I made a mental note to remind Edward about the light I was sure that lay broken in that direction. The irony of the situation struck me, and I a let out a little hysterical giggle. Edward turned my direction.

"What?" He asked in a cautious tone.

"I was just thinking about how ironic it is. My defense team just did the exact same thing I did to end up here. Except you guys are adding 'concealing a death' onto your list of crimes."

Edward sighed dramatically. "Sometimes, you have the weirdest sense of humor."

* * *

It only took a couple of hours to remove the blood from my cell, and another half hour to run the mop through the rest of the hall. Vampire speed came in very useful at times. When Carlisle and Edward finished their task Edward and I lay down on my bed and I finally got to sleep in his arms. It was just as wonderful as I remembered.

* * *

In the morning, Edward woke me with a cold kiss to the forehead, and disappeared to whatever hiding spot the vampires had been using. I went through my morning routines, with two exceptions. 

The first was when I was questioned by one of the prison staff as to whether I had seen the night guard. I was so flustered by the question, I answered as honestly as possible with a "Not since his early round last night." They seemed satisfied with this answer, and let me continue with my breakfast.

The second exception was a bit more interesting and unexpected than the first. I obtained a paper from the woman who brought me my breakfast, and I sat down to read it. I was still getting abnormally good treatment. I was still going to make Alice explain why that was today, but first I was going to enjoy my breakfast.

I opened the paper and began to scan it. It was normal, except for a small article on the front. It was titled, 'What is Wrong With Congressmen Brandon?'

I choked a little on the egg I had been swallowing and I folded the paper over.

_**What is Wrong With Congressmen Brandon?**_

_Early this morning, 911 dispatch received a call from Congressmen Henry Brandon's residence reporting a dead body in his living room. Police responded immediately but by the time they got there, no evidence of a body remained. In his statement the Congressmen said he was awoken by a strange noise downstairs. When he went to check, he found a body with a mangled head wearing a uniform. It was supposedly sitting in his armchair. Brandon immediately contacted the police but by the time he returned to his living room the body had disappeared. Police checked the room for evidence of a break-in or presence of a body, but none of was found. This occurrence leads me to ask, what kind of a person is Congressmen Brandon? Have the people chosen their representation wisely? Might it be possible that the state-elected representative have some disease that causes hallucinations? Or perhaps Senator Brandon has merely been experimenting with the drugs he so adamantly opposes in public? Whatever the reason, I along with the rest of the state are asking, is our representative in congress fit to represent?_

I sat staring dumbly at the paper. The culprit behind this was obviously Emmett, and I was shocked Alice had allowed him to do it. My guess was that Carlisle was going to be even more shocked, he had probably sent Alice thinking she would keep Emmett in check.

Then I thought about Henry trying to explain to the police that the body had disappeared. I dissolved into giggles and was unable to regain my composure for a good ten minutes.


	21. Alice's Explanations

Chapter 25

When I was finally ready to meet with my 'defense council' for the day, I asked the guard to take me to my usual room. To my surprise, Edward was not there, but Emmett, Alice, and Jasper were.

"Umm…where's Edward?" I asked looking suspiciously at the little group assembled around the table.

"He had some things to take care of," Alice waved her hand dismissively. "Besides, Emmett and I beat him here."

"Uh huh, and these _things_ wouldn't have anything to do with a certain dead body would they?" Emmett squirmed a little in his chair. Jasper looked like he was going to double over in laughter at any point. Fat lot of help he was.

"So anyone want to tell me about last night?" I asked looking pointedly towards Alice.

"What do you want to know Bella? I mean, you were there for most of it," Alice waved again, trying unsuccessfully to look nonchalant.

"I think you know what I mean," I threw the paper down on the table. The article in question sat boldly on top, facing Emmett. At that, all three of them lost their composure and went into fits of laughter. I tried to remain stern, but in the end I was howling with mirth along with them.

"How…did…you... pull... that off?" I asked between bursts of laughter. "Edward and Carlisle are likely to kill you."

"Oh we have our ways little sister," Emmett said trying to sound mysterious as he leaned back in his chair. He pulled his sunglasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on. He reached back into his pocket and retrieved a pack of cigarettes. I pulled them out of his hand.

"No smoking Emmett. Just because you can't get lung cancer doesn't mean I can't. Besides, spies nowadays don't smoke anymore. They're more health conscious." Emmett looked thoughtful.

"Really? What do spies do now?" He asked curiously. That was a good question, what could I tell Emmett spies did that I could actually stand him doing?

"They…umm…well, spies now are into a lot of mind and body stuff. They work out a lot to stay healthy and they read a lot of books so they can get an advantage over the enemy and keep their mind healthy." There. That should keep him out of trouble.

"Really…" Emmett looked thoughtful, "I don't need to work out…but I can read! That's what I'll do…" And then he started mumbling to himself. Emmett could read? The boy never ceased to amaze me. Now that I had thoroughly occupied Emmett, I could focus on giving Alice and Jasper the third degree. I noticed Emmett grabbing one of Jasper's legal books from the corner of my eye.

"Okay, now I want some answers from you two," I said looking pointedly to Alice and Jasper. Alice nodded and Jasper looked distracted. I think he was trying to calm Emmett's fervor down.

"Well, what would you like to know?" Alice asked.

"First of all, I want to know why I'm getting decent food to eat, and free reign of the prison all of a sudden. Then you can tell me exactly why you let Emmett risk getting caught at my ex-father-in-law's house with a dead body. After that, I want you to explain exactly what it is you saw in your vision last night that made you, Emmett, and Carlisle burst into my cell." I gave Alice a very stern look. She was resigned, so she began explaining.

She told me that the reason I had been getting such good treatment from the prison was because of an idea Carlisle had. He thought that since Congressmen Brandon owned so many people by paying them, they would just pay the people in question five times as much so they would change their allegiance. They would use Edward to make sure that the person in question's loyalty had been truly bought. Then they would in turn report to Carlisle and sometimes Esme as to what Henry had asked them to do. In turn, Carlisle and Esme would ask them to do something different. The people in question were always well paid, and had put up little resistance to the Cullen's directives. Turns out that people who can be bought generally can be easily persuaded to switch to the side that promises the most money. So much for loyalty!

They had also been paying just about everyone in the prison off to improve my living conditions. There were several exceptions that they hadn't been able to reach yet, one of which had been my assailant last night.

The next step of Carlisle's plan involved the trial. He intended to use his money there to buy a favorable outcome. As soon as the jury members had been picked they would have a member of the family approach them before the Congressmen got to them. They would be offered money and/or protection from Henry depending on which they wanted or needed. Esme was a key element to this plan, since she came across and trustworthy and sincere.

To top this all off, they had Jasper's power to affect emotions which he would use to its full extent during the trial. Carlisle didn't actually like fixing the trial, but he felt that he had little choice in the matter. As he had put it, since a fair trial in this case was impossible, fixing the trial in my favor and winning, as preferable to playing by the rules and losing.

After Alice had covered Carlisle's simple (but effective) plan, she started on their misadventures last night. The reason they had rushed to the cell was because Alice had a vision that had kept changing as to whether Edward was going to lose control of his bloodlust. In the end, Alice's vision had settled on Edward being able to overcome his urges. I knew from past experience Edward was unlikely to be comforted much by this fact, and would in all probability be dwelling on it. In fact his masochistic nature almost assured it.

After Carlisle dictated that Emmett and Alice get rid of the body last night, they had been trying to decide whether it would be good to just have him disappear or leave him somewhere to be found. It had (unsurprisingly) been Emmett's idea to mess with Henry's head by letting him see the body first.

After Alice had tried to see the outcome of such an action she had deemed it to be well worth the risk. Anything to discredit Henry was well worth risks she assured me.

When she was done, I leaned back in my chair trying to take it all in. She had given me a lot of information to think about, and I was trying to sort it all out in my head. Finally, I settled on the question that was first and foremost in my head.

"Why did you want to keep this a secret from me Alice?" She paused and opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Jasper.

"Actually, it was my request that kept anyone from telling you. As your defense council, I thought it best for you to not have any knowledge of the…illegal actions we were taking. If anyone questioned you about it, you could truthfully deny all knowledge of it, and be faultless." I should have realized this before, and I turned red for not having thought about it. It seemed so obvious.

"I'm sorry Jasper. I don't blame you, and I know you're doing the best that you can. I just hate being in the dark." He nodded understandingly. "So, now that we are being honest, can you guys tell me what exactly Edward is doing today?"

Alice perked up, "Actually Bella, he's doing exactly what you thought; he and Carlisle are trying to figure out what to do with the body now that Brandon has seen it. They are trying to decide whether or not it would be prudent to have the body found."

Jasper cut in. "Now that we've answered all of your questions, I'd like to ask you some." I nodded, indicating for him to continue. "Actually, I have just one. We haven't had you do a press conference yet, and we'd like to get some interviews out there and drum up some public support for you. Unfortunately, I and our family need to stay away from getting caught on camera, in case someone recognizes us. We've lived in enough places that someone we have known from the past will recognize that we haven't changed at all in the last ten to forty years."

That made sense. The last thing the Cullens needed was press. "That's okay Jasper; I think I can do it on my own."

"Great! I knew you'd say that!" Jasper beamed. Alice looked a little guilty. "That's why I scheduled you some exclusive interviews for this afternoon!" Jasper continued unperturbed. Fantastic, I thought, this was not going to be fun.


	22. Henry's Mistake

Chapter 26

After about six hours of random reporters asking me, "Why did you do it?" I was about ready to scream. Jasper owed me big time for this. Finally, the last reporter left and I went into my cell exhausted. I fell down on my bed moaning in frustration. Someone appeared in the corner of my eye. The way they had suddenly materialized out of thin air alerted me to the fact it was a Cullen. I didn't bother to check and see which one it was. As far as I was concerned they were all evil for putting me through that little six hour question and answer session.

"Unless you have something edible to eat or some coffee, I don't want to talk to you," I directed in the general direction of the figure.

"As a matter of fact," came Alice's distinctive voice, "I have both!" I wasn't surprised. She probably saw in a vision that was what I wanted. Come to think of it, she probably had seen how hellish my afternoon had been.

I sat up and grabbed the coffee and bag of food she held. "Why didn't you warn me how awful this afternoon was going to be?" I demanded.

"Because you wouldn't have gone," she replied. That was true, but I wasn't entirely convinced the whole thing was necessary.

"Trust me, it'll be worth it," Alice said. Sometimes her timing was scary.

Edward's point of view

Carlisle and I finally decided on hiding the body for a while before allowing it to be found. Carlisle's thoughts betrayed how reluctant he was to cause the dead man's family any more worry and grief than necessary, but he also realized the necessity of keep suspicion at a minimum.

Alice had called and told me not to try to see Bella today, Jasper had booked a full day for her. I suggested I could watch her during the night again, but Alice said I needed to watch the Congressman. I trusted Alice, so I agreed.

I called Emmett's phone, but he didn't pick up. I shrugged and called Esme. I thought she might want to get out of the hotel for a while, and to be honest, I really liked having company while I followed Brandon. His mind was exceptionally infuriating, and sometimes it was all I could do to restrain myself. When I had a member of my family along, they were able to keep my anger in check.

Esme agreed to come along eagerly, I think she was getting bored sitting around and was happy for a chance to help Bella. We followed Brandon around for the better part of the afternoon without any results. The only marginally interesting thing that happened was a call he received from someone at the city newspaper warning him about another especially bad article that would be published in tomorrow's newspaper. This was funny, and mildly satisfying, but it wasn't what Alice had been talking about. I began to suspect Alice just wanted to get rid of me.

Finally in the early evening Emmett called back.

"Hey little bro, I just got your message!"

"Great," I replied a little sarcastically, "Where have you been?"

"I've been in the bookstore all afternoon, I guess I didn't have service. You ready to go follow Brandon around?"

"Yes Emmett, I've been ready the entire day. That's why Esme and I have been following him."

"Alright, well I'll meet you at his house in five minutes!" Then, Emmett hung up. I sighed snapping my cell phone closed.

"I'll see you later dear," Esme said. "Good luck." With that, she started walking back in the direction of the hotel.

I started off in the other direction, towards Brandon's house. I was not going to be happy if Alice had set this up to keep me busy all night.

As I walked, a thought occurred to me. I wondered why Emmett had been in a bookstore? He'd never been an avid reader, and I couldn't remember the last time he'd picked up a book. Something told me I was about to find out.

When I got to Brandon's house, Emmett was already there hiding in the shadows. As per usual, he was wearing black and attempting to hide. It was kind of like an Elephant trying to blend into a concrete wall.

"Hi Emmett," I sighed. On his back, he had a black backpack. I probably didn't want to know what was in it, but I asked against my better judgment. "What's in the bag?"

"Books!" He said happily.

"What kind of books?" I asked warily. If he had bought more pornographic comic books, I was going to kill him.

"Umm...I've got one on law, a couple about psychology, and the one I'm reading now is called "The Art of Subtlety." I stared. Surely he was joking.

"Why?"

"Well, Bella said that spies nowadays read a lot so they can outsmart their enemies, and she's right, there's a lot of great stuff in here!" Ah. I should have known it would have something to do with his current fascination with spies. I would have to thank Bella later for suggesting this. It was much easier to handle than Emmett's 'James Bond' persona.

We settled in to listen to Brandon for the evening. As it went on, Emmet finished two books and actually spouted some interesting facts out of one of them. I preferred it _much_ more to his cigarettes.

As it grew later in the evening, still nothing out of the ordinary happened. Alice had either been wrong or had purposefully mislead me. Later, I was going to corner her and pull the truth out of her mind.

I finally gave up and started reading one of Emmett's books. I was about halfway done with it when I heard a car creeping through Brandon's gate. I looked up from my book and froze. Brandon must truly be desperate.

"Emmett!" I whispered urgently. "Get the video camera!"


	23. Henry's Faulty Plan

Chapter 27

Edward's Point of view

"Why?" Emmett asked, already reaching in his bag for the camcorder.

"That car," I said pointing. "The man inside is thinking about a 'job' Congressmen Brandon asked him to come here to discuss."

"So what?" Emmett still looked very confused. I realized he couldn't hear the man's thoughts, and therefore didn't understand what kind of job he was coming here to discuss.

"He's a contract killer Emmett," I said quietly, "I can hear him thinking about it." I had very little doubt as to whom he was being hired to kill. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. We wouldn't do Bella any good if I lost my temper again.

Emmett's face hardened into a deadly mask. All traces of joviality were gone as he readied the camcorder for use. This man had taken it too far.

"Do you think you can get into the house Emmett?" I asked him. I didn't know if I could promise to control myself when I was in that close of proximity with a monster.

"I got it," Emmett said, and with a flash he was gone.

I know I should have been relieved that the Congressman had made such a stupid and critical error. Relief was one of the furthest things from my mind however. The only thing I felt was fury. Brandon would pay dearly for his error.

Bella's Point of View

The next morning the woman who brought me breakfast also brought me several papers. I supposed they were the ones I had interviewed for yesterday. I unfolded the first one and gasped. I quickly unfolded the second and third ones and was just as shocked by what I found there.

I was on the front page of all three, with headlines that read things like; "The Truth About our Unjust Legal System," and "Free Bella Brandon!" This was not the kind of reaction I had been expecting from those interviews; Alice had been right when she said they would be worth the effort. You couldn't buy this kind of publicity.

I thought about that statement. Maybe this kind of publicity _had _been bought. I wouldn't put it past the Cullens. I was grateful though, all of the articles called for public support of my release. One of them even highlighted the 'theory' that my ex-father-in-law was the only reason I was still in prison.

Another article laid out all of the facts of my case and illustrated why the courts had no grounds for trial. Never in a million years would I have expected this kind of public outrage. I supposed the papers loved it though; a scandal involving a congressmen was much more interesting than a simple murder. I was sure Henry was very displeased, all of the stories painted a very realistic picture of the corrupt, power-hungry congressman he really was. It was strangely satisfying.

* * *

When I got to the normal meeting room, Alice was bouncing up and down even more than usual. I had to wonder again what the prison staff thought of the inhumanly beautiful people who showed up to meet with me everyday, especially since they all appeared to be ludicrously young to have completed law school. 

"This is working out even better than I thought!" Alice gushed. "I don't think we're going to have to go to trial after all!"

This information was new to me, and I barely managed to get a "What do you mean?" in before Alice and Jasper starting talking very quickly at the same time. I looked back and forth between them and finally looked past Alice. Edward had come today and he was looking bewilderedly between his siblings. I finally gave up on Alice and Jasper and slid into the seat next to Edward.

"Hey," I said as I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"Hi," he replied as he slipped a cold arm around my shoulders.

"Any idea what they're talking about?" I asked conversationally.

"Not a clue," he laughed as they both finally stopped talking over one another and realized I was no longer standing in front of Alice. "Guess what I got you?" He asked with a dazzling grin.

"What?" He held up a camcorder.

"You got me a video recorder?" His smiled wavered, then he laughed.

"No silly Bella, I got you what is inside the video recorder," He handed it over to me with it already set on video mode. I took it, and watched the tiny screen. When it was finished, I handed it back to him.

"Wow. Do I even want to know how you got that?" I asked.

He pursed his lips and shook his head. "Probably not. But I'll give you a clue. Emmett." Of course. Who else would have the audacity to climb into a congressman's house and hang from his ceiling to record a conversation he was having with a hit man? There was never a dull moment with Emmett around.

"So are you going to send this into a news station?" I queried. He shook his head again.

"Not for a little while at least, Brandon's reputation has actually been severely affected by all of the negative publicity. We think we're going to go ahead and let him carry out his plan, then we're going to release this."

"You're going to let the hit man kill me?" I asked, teasing him.

"Of course not! Edward looked absolutely horrified that I would even thing such a thing. I smiled to reassure him, and he scowled back. "That was not funny."

"Yes it was, and you know it," I shot back.

He smiled. "Either way, we want to make sure we have you far away before this becomes public."

An electrical thrill shot through me, because if Henry's plan was carried out, I would be released from prison within the next couple of days.

* * *

**Henry's Plan will be in the next chapter I promise! For those of you who are confused as to why Henry would all of a sudden want to free Bella, I'll give you a hint. Is it easier to kill someone who is in prison being guarded, or to kill someone who is walking around free and open in the city?**


	24. Edward's Revelation

**I've just had several complaints about the length of my last chapter, and I'd just like to say; quality over quantity my dears. Also, that chapter was only the 6****th**** shortest chapter I've had. **

**Another complaint I had was "how can Emmett hang on the ceiling?" Well, all Bella knows is that the video is obviously from a very high angle, she doesn't know how he got the footage. For that matter, I don't either. He's a freaking vampire for goodness sakes, if he was determined enough, I'm sure he was able to find a way to hide while taking the video, and up is always a good choice, no one ever looks up. Use your imagination!**

* * *

Chapter 28

A few days later, when I got my paper I opened it to the front page. I was still on it, but so was Congressman Brandon. He had made a public statement citing his son's death as an "unfortunate accident," and calling for the release of his "beloved daughter-in-law." Bastard.

This wasn't unexpected, in fact it went right along with what the Cullens and I had expected. On the video Emmett had made, Henry had outlined his plan to the man he had hired to kill me.

Every attempt Henry had made to kill or harm me inside prison had been foiled. He was also smart enough to realize that I had something to do with the denunciation of his friend the judge, and of himself. He probably also realized that if he continued trying to hurt me in jail he was just going to get more negative press, and be cast as the 'bad guy'. This is the last thing he or any other public figure wanted, especially since he planned on staying in office as long as possible.

Henry's solution? Simple. Redefine his role as 'loving' father-in-law whose family has been rocked by tragedy. Gain public sympathy by conforming to the role of good guy by securing my release. Once I had been released, the man he had hired would kill me quietly, making it look like an unfortunate accident. This again gained Henry public support as the role of grieving father and father-in-law.

Henry had never been very good at waiting. At first, his only goal was to see me incarcerated for the rest of my life. Then he realized that I had gotten a good lawyer who could and would systematically discredit whoever stood in my way. Then he decided to kill me. Dead people don't fight back. Now that he realized killing me in prison wasn't as easy as he had thought, he had decided to get me released.

I had to admit, Henry's latest idea was in fact clever. He got the benefit of looking good in the public eye, having me killed, and then receiving public attention for his "grief". Too bad for him Edward was only going to let the first part of his plan happen.

I was actually relieved in a way. Even though I knew Jasper had the trial under control, I hadn't been looking forward to it. This way, I would be released simple and easy, and be long gone before Henry ever realized a thing. And if Alice was correct, (which she usually was) it was going to happen today.

Edward's Point of View

I was ecstatic. After all of our hard work and planning, Bella would be released without as much as a bribe. I was elated that Henry was giving us what we had wanted all along, and wouldn't even realize that he had failed until it was too late.

After all of our careful planning, we were finally about to make Bella safe (at least as safe as she could be in the presence of seven blood thirsty monsters). I knew that with her release came the inevitable talk that we had all been avoiding. I refused to live without Bella, and she without me. I wasn't sure how to handle the situation.

Alice had hinted countless times that turning her into a vampire now was the only choice that was logical. Every time she started down this path of thought I would leave the room. I would not make Bella into a monster.

The incident from a couple of nights ago made me very much aware of the danger I constantly put her in, I could have just as easily killed her as not. She wasn't safe with me, she wasn't safe without me. She'd proved that again and again. The conundrum of how to keep her safe, and keep her with me was proving to be a challenge.

I put these thoughts out of my mind for now, brooding over them wouldn't help anything right now. Alice had predicted that Bella's charges would be dropped today and she would be released. Unfortunately, Jasper's interviews had made Bella something of a phenomenon in the media, and there were sure to be reporters with video cameras swarming the area. None of us could afford to be caught on camera.

To make matters even worse, Alice saw that the sun was going to come out around the same time, meaning we needed to be extra careful to stay away. The last thing we needed was to be caught on camera sparkling. Alice didn't see Bella having any problems getting back to her house (which had been released to her along with her bank accounts). We would wait for her here, and then make a hasty exit from the state.

I looked at my watch; we only had another hour before Alice's predicted release date. We were all seated inside Bella's living room, just waiting. I was doing my best not to look at the wedding picture of Bella that sat on the mantle, but it was difficult. I deserved every ounce of pain it gave me; it had been my fault that she had resorted to this. It was my fault she had spent over a month in prison. It was my fault she had to kill someone to protect herself. I had made mistake after mistake, and I deserved to feel the consequences of my actions.

I looked over at my family; they were just as quiet as I. Carlisle and Esme were sitting side by side on the loveseat with their eyes closed, hands joined. Emmett was sitting in an armchair reading yet another book. The fact that we had told him that his spying days were over hadn't deterred him from his obsession in the slightest. I sighed, at least he was reading books this time, and this was much preferable to some of his obsessions.

Rosalie was pouting next to Emmett, seated on the arm of the chair. She felt his time would be better spent paying attention to her. On the couch, Jasper was also reading a book. Next to him, Alice held a book in her hands, but her face was blank. She was having a vision, but I was having trouble distinguishing the images I was getting from her mind. It was almost like a slideshow gone crazy, random images shot through her mind too fast to be able to study any of them intently.

Then an image I was able to distinguish passed. One of Bella being hit by a car in front of the prison. Behind the wheel of the car, I saw a familiar man; one I had only seen once before. It was the contract killer Brandon had hired. Behind stood a mass of reporters, and overhead the sun shone brightly.

I gasped in horror and exchanged glances with Alice. "What are we going to do Edward?" Alice whispered quietly. "If we expose ourselves the Volturi will kill us. If we don't help her, she'll die."


	25. Emmett's New and Improved Good Idea

Chapter 29

Edward's Point of View

"What's wrong?" Carlisle asked, sitting up alarmed in his seat. We quickly relayed Alice's vision to everyone. We explained that the biggest problem was the sun being out making it impossible to just show up and keep her from walking into the street. We also pointed out the abundance of video cameras that would be present, and why it was prudent not have our faces captured on them.

The family sat in stunned, horrified silence for several moments. Finally, Rosalie was the one to break the silence.

"Well, we have to save her regardless."

"I know that!" I stormed. Next to Bella, the secret of the existence of vampires was nothing. I was infuriated that anyone would suggest that I thought otherwise. I took another deep breath to continue my rant to Rosalie when Emmett cut me off.

"This isn't a problem," said Emmett. Alice and I stared at him in shock, how could he trivialize the predicament we were in? Bella's life was at stake.

"Don't you care about Bella?" Alice asked in disbelief.

"Of course!" replied and indignant Emmett. "That's why I have a plan, unlike you guys." At the same moment, Alice had a vision of his plan, and I was able to see what it was through his thoughts. The biggest surprise was that it was the perfect solution.

"That's actually a really good idea," I told him after thinking it over. If we could pull it off, we could save Bella and not risk exposing ourselves for what we were. At worst, we'd just be faceless jackasses.

"Oh don't sound so shocked," Emmett said reproachfully. "It's not like I'm dumb or anything."

"I knew that stuff I bought you guys would come in handy," Alice said smugly.

The rest of the family was confused. "Emmett," I said, "please quickly explain our plan while I gather up what we need".

Bella's Point of View

Once again, Alice's predictions proved to be accurate. At noon, I was told that all charges against me were being dropped, and I was free to go. The plan was for me to meet with all of the reporters who were waiting for me outside, then make my way to the house I had shared with my deceased husband. The Cullens would meet me there, and then we would make our way out of state as soon as possible.

Edward hadn't been happy that I was going to have to get home on my own without one of the Cullens protecting me. It was necessary though, the sun was going to come out today, and we couldn't risk anyone seeing their sparkling skin. Besides, Alice hadn't seen any danger, and the chances of my father-in-law's hit man deciding to kill me in the next hour weren't good.

A guard escorted me from my cell and gave all of my personal belongings back to me. Thankfully, Alice had included some non-blood spattered clothes so I had something less morbid to wear out.

This was the happiest I had felt in five years. Edward and the rest of the Cullens were back, and I had my shot at true happiness again. Edward loved me, and had promised not to leave me again. I was out of prison, and about to leave behind my dismal previous life. Things were going great. I felt slightly nervous, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the excitement of today, or just because there was still someone out there who wanted to kill me.

I took a deep breath. I can do this, I thought to myself. Then I stepped outside of the doors of the prison, into a writhing mass of reporters. I answered so many questions I thought I was going to lose my voice. As I did though, I slowly inched my way through the throng. I stepped out close to the street and two arms wrapped around me. I looked up and jerked away in shock. It was Congressmen Henry Brandon.

I almost started hyperventilating in fear. He wasn't supposed to be here! I tried to think of all the possible reasons he could have come. Only two made sense. The first reason was he wanted the publicity of being on good terms with me. The second reason, his hit man had changed his mind on when to kill me, and he wanted to watch me die.

Alarmed, I looked up and around. No snipers were visible. I realized how stupid that was; Henry had been very specific that my death was to be an accident. All the same, I wished desperately that Edward was here.

"Oh Isabella, I'm so glad you've finally been released," He said with his hands still on my shoulders.

"I'm sure," I replied, my voice heavy with sarcasm. It was my only defense against him right now, and I knew I needed to appear unintimidated. I deftly stepped back to remove his vile hands from my shoulders. "Makes it so much easier for your hit man to kill me if I'm running around free."

Brandon laughed heartily at that. "You poor dear. You've been through so much, and I'm sure those anti-psychotics the doctor prescribed are upsetting you." He smiled directly into the camera. If the situation hadn't been so serious I would have considered making gagging noises at his obvious play to the camera.

"I'm not on any medication," I hissed back, "except for the medicine my doctor had to prescribe for the injuries your son gave me when he tried to kill me."

Henry smiled with obvious pity. "Yes, my poor son, he also had some problems. I regret that we weren't able to help him before his illness caused him to do something so dreadfully out of character. I don't blame you at all for what you had to do my dear, I'm only glad that I still have you. Don't worry; we'll get you the help you need." He moved as if to embrace me again. I put my hand up, stopping him.

"Just don't." With that, I turned toward the street and stepped out to cross it. I was halfway across the street, when I heard it. I turned to see an out of control car heading straight towards me. I screamed and tried to run the rest of the way across the road but I tripped. I tried to get up, but it was too late. The car was almost on me.

Then, something black and huge grabbed me, pulling me out of the way onto the safety of the sidewalk.

"Emmett?" I asked in shocked disbelief. "What are you wearing?"

"I'm not Emmett," said the figure, "I'm super spyman!"


	26. Brandon's End

Chapter 30

Bella's Point of View

"Oh god…" I trailed off in bemusement. I thought Emmett would probably be offended if I laughed as hard at him as I wanted to, but on the other hand I felt like I was about to break a rib holding it back.

Emmett was dressed completely in black, his outfit complete with black gloves, a black ski mask, and sunglasses. The most interesting part however was a black piece of cloth that appeared to be tied around Emmett's neck. Closer inspection revealed that it was my kitchen tablecloth. Not an inch of his body showed. This was a good thing, because the sun was shining brightly overhead.

"Umm…since when have you been super spyman?" I asked instead. Emmett stood up proudly.

"It was my idea…Alice saw that Brandon's hit man had decided killing you right away was the best option. Who would suspect foul play when a run away car hit you in front of a group of reporters right? So we dressed up in the black clothes that Alice bought when we first started spying. Edward wanted to get rid of the ski masks weeks ago, but I saved them. Good thing too, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to come out in the sun."

"Oh my gosh, the car!" I suddenly remembered why Emmett was here. I looked around, and saw the car in question crumpled against the prison wall. Someone was standing next to it on a cell phone, calling an ambulance I hoped. I turned again and was met by the site of the reporters on the sidewalk gathered around another figure dressed in all black, completely ignoring the car that had almost smashed me. Henry was standing out of the group, looking at me with murder in his eyes. I gave a little wave at him.

Suddenly, a gasp ran through the crowd. The reporters turned away from the black clad figure and towards Henry. Looking closer at the figure I realized that most likely it was Edward under all the black. I turned to ask Emmett but he had disappeared. I looked around again and saw him crossing the street. The Edward-spy held up his hands and shook them, trying to tell Emmett to stay put. Emmett didn't listen.

I saw him giving the eager crowd some kind of speech, but try as I might I couldn't hear it. Suddenly, Emmett grabbed his 'cape' and held it out from his body. He then tossed it theatrically and crossed the street to me. The Edward-spy followed.

The Edward spy came up to me, and put his arm around my waist. Yep, it was defiantly Edward. "Let's go," his slightly muffled voice murmured.

"Aww, but I was having so much fun," I said playfully.

"You are absurd," He replied.

"Nice outfit," I shot back. I thought heard a small growl, but I ignored it. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"He's mediocre spy boy!" Declared Emmett eagerly. "He's my sidekick." I couldn't hold my mirth back any longer.

"I am not anyone's sidekick," Edward said testily. I continued my hysterical laughing, and soon both Edward and Emmett had joined my jovial giggles.

For the first time in five years, my life was taking a turn for the positive.

Edward's Point of View

Emmett's plan was simple. We dressed up head to toe in the black spy gear that Alice had bought. It completely covered us so we would not be spotted by the cameras or the sun. Not an inch of our skin was visible, and our eyes were covered. We rushed to the prison to make sure we had plenty of time to save Bella. Emmett and I found a little alcove to sit in that gave us a perfect view of the front of the prison.

About fifteen minutes before Alice had predicted Bella's release a huge crowd of reporters began to assemble at the gates. Then, someone I had not expected pulled up in an expensive black car. Congressmen Brandon stepped out, and it was all I could do not to cross the street and rip his throat out. His thoughts were even more evil and distasteful then usual.

Fifteen minutes later, Bella appeared at the doors. She was immediately mobbed by cameras and she spent an extraordinarily long time answering questions. Slowly, she fought her way through the crowd and emerged out the other side. I growled as Brandon embraced her, and made a big show to the cameras about Bella's well being. I comforted myself by thinking about how he was going to thoroughly humiliated shortly.

I began to fidget a little bit, I wasn't very happy with the next part of the plan. Originally, I had insisted on being the one to pull Bella out of the way of the oncoming car so I could personally ensure her safety. Emmett would then show the reporters the video he had taken of Brandon hiring the hit man. Unfortunately, every vision Alice had of this ended with Emmett crushing the fragile DVD in his excited grip.

Alice had reassured me by showing me her vision of everything going flawlessly when we switched places. So while I was unhappy about the plan, I agreed to it. I smiled proudly when she stood up to Congressmen Brandon. Unfortunately, it was this action that gave the hit man the perfect opportunity. Bella stalked across the road, and his 'out of control' car barreled towards her. He had cut the break lines to make it look like an accident; he was legitimately unable to slow down. His brake lights flashed as he stomped down on them.

I watched closely as Emmett grabbed Bella and pulled her to safety. When I was assured of her safety I walked into the mist of the throng and announced that I had some startling footage they all might be interested in. It worked flawlessly, reporters love breaking news, especially from weirdoes dressed in all black. They all huddled around the little screen of the portable DVD player I was playing the video on, never once asking about my attire. I suspected I could have been glittering and they still would have been more interested in the DVD. After all, a car accident had just occurred fifty feet from where we stood.

They watched in silence, and their shocked thoughts bombarded me. A collective gasp ran through the crowd when Brandon paid the hit man. I could hear Congressmen Brandon's furious thoughts assaulting me, and I saw an image of Bella giving him a little finger wave through his mind. How I loved that woman! I handed the DVD player to the nearest reporter whose mind was already thinking about how this story was going to elevate her career. Chances of her being bribed were slim.

Then, I began to walk away. That is, until I saw Emmett approaching. I waved him back, trying to make him return to where Bella stood. He ignored me completely.

"Good people," he began, "What has happened here today is a gross abuse of power. However, we must never give up on the social contract. While it has been violated by Congressman Brandon, we must realize that that with this violation also comes the restriction of rights, just like for any other citizen. The law applies to everyone, and now Congressman Brandon must reap the consequences of his actions, just like any other citizen." He then turned to Congressmen Brandon, "buy your way out of that, asshole." With a flourish of his cape, he turned and crossed the street with me.

"I didn't know you were a fan of Locke," I said under my breath to him.

"Oh yeah," replied Emmett, "Remember when I majored in political science? Locke is my favorite political philosopher." I sighed. Emmett managed to act so childish sometimes I forgot he was as well versed in some subjects as I. On the other hand, it was really hard to take a black clad vampire with cape who called himself 'super spyman' seriously.

We'd done enough damage for today, showing up dressed as spies, saving Bella from a runaway car, crashing said car, and providing incriminating evidence against a United States congressmen. I wrapped my arm around Bella. "Let's go," I said lovingly in her ear.


	27. The End

**For some reason the fanfiction alerts were down today, so don't forget to read chapter 30, which was posted earlier today!**

* * *

Epilogue

The Cullens and I had decided that since Henry and the hit man were both in jail, it wouldn't hurt to delay our leaving the state by a couple of days. Emmett and I had some good laughs at Congressmen Brandon's expense as we watched him on the nightly news. Emmett insisted on recording the new footage on him as 'super spyman'. Edward wasn't quite as happy to have evidence of this on tape.

The night before we were scheduled to leave I decided it was time to address our next dilemma. Edward and I were arguing over whether or not I should be changed, (I had some very convincing arguments) and he was adamant about not stealing my soul. I countered that I didn't believe he would be able to love me if he didn't have a soul. It went back and forth this way until Emmett stepped in.

"This has got to stop!" He boomed. Edward faltered mid-expletive and turned to stare at Emmett. That's when I noticed the rest of the family sitting in the living room listening to our argument. I'd been so engrossed I hadn't even noticed.

Heat rushed to my face and I turned as well to listen to what Emmett had to say. "All in favor of Bella becoming a vampire?" Everyone's hand but Edward's and Rosalie's went up. "Six to two. Majority wins. Hooray for democracy!" Then Emmett walked away.

I turned to Edward. He was furious. I could tell by the ragged breathing and his tense posture. I could also tell by the door frame of my house he had shredded to dust. I ignored him. "Will you change me Carlisle?" He opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Edward. They conversed too quickly for me to comprehend. After several moments he let out a roar and disappeared. I heard a crash from somewhere in the house. I had a feeling I would be missing some furniture.

"It's up to you," Carlisle said looking sadly after Edward, "You are after all, an adult."

* * *

Later on, Edward approached me while Alice, Rosalie, and I were laughing gleefully at the eleven o'clock news. "Bella, I want to talk." He looked pitiful. No matter how pitiful he looked though, I wasn't giving it up. Now that I had Edward back, I didn't intend on ever losing him again.

"Are you sure you're done breaking furniture?" I asked him. He glared at me and picked me up easily.

"Carlisle told me what he said to you. I want you to know I respect your decision, although I don't agree with it." From the sound of it Esme had talked to him as well. He sat me down on a chair.

"That's good, because I'm not changing my mind," I informed him. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You're that sure this is what you want?"

"Of course. I love you Edward, and I want to spend forever with you. Once I'm a vampire too, we will never have to be separated. You are my life," I repeated those words back to him from so long ago. He smiled then and got down on one knee, reaching into his pocket. Out came a small velvet case.

"In that case, I have a question for you." His beautiful smiled lit up the room as he opened the box.

* * *

**And thus concludes my first attempt at fanfiction. Thank you to all of those who reviewed, when I come up with something new to write (and finish Eclipse) I'll be back! **


	28. Epilogue for the Epilogue

**AN: I'm back! This is something I just had inspiration to write today, so I wrote it up and decided to post it for your reading enjoyment. It's just ment to be a funny little follow up, so I hope you enjoy it! Also, just so you know, I'm planning on changing my penname to Ksilverstar25 or something similar depending on availibiity. Watch for more stories of mine coming to a computer near you!

* * *

**

Epilogue for the Epilogue

It had been five years since the events that had brought Edward back into my life. They had been the happiest five years of my life. Technically, I was now twenty eight years old although I didn't look a day over eighteen. Actually, I probably looked younger than that; a woman had wanted to help me find 'my mommy' in a Vegas casino a couple of years ago. You would have thought the bucket of quarters I was carrying would have tipped her off for crying out loud.

I very rarely thought about Henry Brandon junior or senior, that was a chapter of my life I considered closed. So imagine my surprise when I opened the paper that had been delivered to our lovely Alaskan home to see my former name splashed across the front page. My eyes widened as I quickly scanned the page. Scanning is much easier when you're a vampire.

**Super Spy Man: The Bella Brandon Story**

_You've read about it in the papers, you've seen the reports on TV, and now you can watch the action from a theatre near you! The Bella Brandon story is one of the most famous scandals involving a politician in the last century. The actual events have been shrouded in mystery since the climatic release of Miss Brandon five years ago. _

_This original screenplay was sent anonymously to Director Pinenski approximately fifteen months ago. "I fell in love with it immediately," Says Director Pinenski. "This fresh, exciting new story is told from the prospective of the man claiming to be 'Super Spy Man' as caught on camera by the news crews present at Bella's release. The plot is grounded in reality, but takes a whimsical turn into fantasy when Super Spy Man, a brilliant but misunderstood man with superpowers takes on Bella's case. He is aided by his slightly bumbling sidekick, Mediocre Spy Boy along with his misfit family." _

_Miss Brandon was unavailable for comment as to the accuracy of this take, as she disappeared from the public eye almost immediately after her release._

_Director Pinenski assures us that this motion picture event is sure to evoke tears and even laughter, as there is much comedic relief provided by Spy Man's sidekick. If you see one movie this year, make it 'Super Spy Man: The Bella Brandon Story,' it's sure to uplift your spirit and tickle your funny bone._

"Well shit," I said matter-of-factly as I finished the article. "Emmett!" I called out. Several seconds later he came rushing down the stairs and slid to a stop in front of me.

"You wanna explain this to me?" I asked, throwing the paper down onto the table. He scanned the article and a wide grin broke out over his face.

"They're using my screenplay!" he cried out excitedly.

"I realized that," I said, giving Emmett a dry look. "You do know that my husband is going to murder you."

"Eh, he'll just be mad that I portrayed him true to life, and didn't sugar coat his flaws," Emmett said, still oblivious to the impending danger.

"I hope you at least didn't make yourselves vampires in the screenplay," I said. Surely he at least had the sense not to do that.

"Of course not," he said looking offended at the very idea. "Why does everyone always think I'm stupid?"

I shrugged, hoping he wouldn't push that particular issue.

"I'm a fallen angel, doomed to walk the earth until the end of time. Edward is an imp, assigned to assist me until he makes restitution for all of his evil deeds." And I thought the original plot was bad. Unfortunatly Emmett continued, oblivious to my dramatic eye roll. "You should read the second screenplay I wrote. It's an entirely fictional account of what would have happened if I had been there to help with the Richard Nixon scandal. I call it, _The Real Deep Throat: Super Spy Man's Beginnings."_

I dropped my head to the table with a thunk. "That's the worst title I've ever heard Emmett," I finally choked out. Eternity living with Emmett was going to be a very, very long time.


End file.
